


Relic Effect

by castone



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, M/M, Treasure Hunting AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-20
Updated: 2012-10-20
Packaged: 2017-11-16 16:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 68,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/541558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castone/pseuds/castone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard is a man with knack for trouble who ventures to the furthest reaches of the globe, securing rare items and artifacts for museums and private collectors... for a price. The start of his greatest adventure yet begins when he and his long-time friend Garrus Vakarian are hired by NYU professors Dr. Liara T'Soni and Kaidan Alenko to recover a medallion from a lost pre-Greecian civilization and soon find themselves thick in a dangerous conspiracy involving a shadowy organization, a lost advanced civilization, and someone from Shepard's past that he has a very personal score to settle with. </p><p>Mass Effect Big Bang 2012 entry<br/>With art by nescienx</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Simple Job

 

 

 

 

****

* * *

 

Art by [nescienx](http://nescienx.livejournal.com/289537.html)

* * *

 

Some people chose the most cliché places to meet. Calling it a café was being nice – it was more like a shack set up by the docks with some tables and chairs set up inside and on the sidewalk – but, at least it was mostly clean, and the aroma coming from inside suggested that the food seemed edible, so Shepard couldn’t complain. Of course, that left the colorful commentary to the tall, olive-skinned man with spiked brown hair beside him.

“So, are we about to pick up a _real_ job or are we about to pick up a kilo of coke again? Because, really Shepard, this is giving me bad flashbacks to that one time in Panama.” Garrus mused, gazing at the structure with his steel blue eyes as they walked closer.

“This isn’t Panama, this is Greece. Things should be okay.” Shepard reassured his friend. “Anyways, just to be on the safe side, I did a background check. She seems completely legit.” He said, unfolding some papers that were in his pocket and handing them to Garrus.

“Good to know you finally learned how to do that.” Garrus said as he took the page and looked it over it and read aloud the highlights. “Dr. Liara T’Soni, 42? Doesn’t look it. Archeologist and Assistant Director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU, specializes in Lost Civilizations, written over 20 papers and three books on the subject and blah, blah, blah-blah, blah, blah….” He turned his head too look at Shepard, his eyebrow arched. “And you don’t find it the least bit suspicious that some _obviously_ respectable doctor got a hold of you for a job?”

 

 

“Give me a little credit, Garrus...” Shepard said,  amused by the lack of faith the other man had in him, yet he still pulled open the front of his leather jacket just enough so Garrus could see the .9mm hidden underneath. “Of course, I don’t think she’ll do anything.  Just doesn’t seem the type to try to double-cross people, so I doubt I’ll have to use it, but…  it doesn’t hurt to have it, just in case.”

“Great minds think alike.” Garrus grinned as he casually rubbed the small of his back to let the hint of the gun handle show against his blue shirt. He let a sigh escaped his mouth. “Let’s hope you’re right, though. I would hate for you to end up in a Greek jail, because that’ll mean I’ll have to bust your ass out of it.”

Shepard just laughed in response as they reached the sidewalk outside of the café.

After giving a quick glance around, and not finding Dr. T’Soni at one of the tables outside (looked like someone had at least took the smart parts in the movies), Shepard and Garrus made their way inside. He quickly scratched out the previous thought in his head how it seemed Dr. T’Soni was playing it smart the second he saw her. Not only did she stand out like a sore thumb in the café,  wearing a white dress, wide-brimmed hat, and sunglasses that made her pale, freckled skin and bright red hair stick out even more than it would in Athens, she seemed to be in a heated argument with a well-built man with slicked-back black hair, who was wearing glasses, a blue dress shirt and a grey vest. The closer Shepard and Garrus got, the clearer their words became.

“There are other ways, Liara.” The unexpected man’s voice was low, rough and husky, but also full of anger. “We could petition the government again… see if they can’t push the paperwork through to get approval sooner.”

“Like I’ve been telling you again and again, Kaidan, the fastest the Greeks will approve it is three weeks, and then it’ll be too late.” Her words were apologetic, almost desperate. “ _This_ is the only way.”

The man slammed his fist onto the table; not too loudly to draw attention, but hard enough to get his frustration across. “Goddamn it, Liara!” His words went above his previous hushed tone, but still not all that loud. “You’re going off of some rumors you heard from a few museum curators! We don’t know who this guy is, and we’ve both spent too long on this to just trust some random stranger who’s wanted in 15 countries!”

Dr. T’Soni sighed and shook her head. “Please, Kaidan, don’t start bringing up Rahna again…”

“Who’s Rahna?” Shepard just ever-so-casually butted in as he and Garrus stood over the two’s table, catching the two off-guard.

An enraged look came over the face of Dr. T’Soni’s companion. “Who the hell are you?” There were daggers filling his words, but he did not raise his voice.

“She… Mr. Shepard?” the woman was unsure.

As he casually pulled the chair nearest to her, Shepard gave the woman a slight nod. “Just ‘Shepard’, Dr. T’Soni.” He then turned his gaze towards the man she was with. “Who’s Mr. Grouchy-pants here?”

The man shot Shepard another nasty look, yet Liara was the one to reply. “This is Professor Kaidan Alenko. He’s an Assistant Professor as well as a colleague of mine at NYU, as well as my assistant on the project I’m currently working on… the same one I need your help recovering an artifact for.”

A sly grin crossed Shepard’s face. “Well, I guessed that much - the procurement of artifacts sort of is my occupation.”

“Who’s your friend?” Professor Alenko’s sharp words cut in, again, while he pointed at the man who had occupied the last chair at the table.

“My associate,” Shepard replied casually.

“Your ‘associate’ have a name?”

Shepard looked over at Garrus. “Hey, you got a name?”

Garrus just grinned slyly as he shrugged. “I don’t know, do I, Shepard?”

A grin formed on Shepard’s face as well as he looked back at Professor Alenko. “Yeah… It’s Garrus.”

The professor just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he leaned back into his seat, very, very irritated.

Dr. T’Soni let out a sigh, obviously bothered by the conversation getting off-track. “Mr. … I mean, Shepard... how familiar are you with ancient Greek culture?”

“About as much as they taught me in high school.” He replied with a shrug.

The woman shook her head. “Well, it doesn’t really matter how much you know. What I need you to recover is a medallion. _Very_ ancient Greek and one-of-a-kind.” She pulled out an old journal that had several pieces of paper stuck inside. She pulled one of the whitest ones out, and handed it to Shepard. It was a photocopy of a sketch of the medallion. “It is supposedly is on a group of islands,  which are off-limits without proper permits, I might add,  about 35 miles off the coast from here. We’ve been petitioning the Greek government for nearly 3 months now to get access, but we’ve been stonewalled at every turn.”

“How do you know it’s still there, then?” Garrus butted in suddenly.

“Something like this…” Dr. T’Soni took in a deep breath, as if she was suddenly overcome with so many emotions. “…something like this would have shown up somewhere in history if it would have ever been removed from that temple. Even a private collector would have flaunted this find off to someone. But, no… nearly 2000 years of nothing… it has to be there.”

Shepard knew that Garrus would keep pressing on with his questions until he was satisfied, and wasn’t disappointed.

“Maybe the Greeks are keeping it under lock-and-key in a museum somewhere, like some big government secret?” Garrus shot loose another question.

She shook her head again. “No. Only one attempted expedition was made into the temple in the early 1930’s. They reached the third sub-level before they were unable to travel further in, due to a chasm approximately 60 meters wide and 150 meters deep. They had planned a second one a few years later,  which would have brought the proper equipment to cross it , but World War 2 happened. Every attempt by the government or a third party thereafter has never come to light due tofinancial issues, bureaucratic red-tape, bad weather, and so many other, smaller things. Something just has always gotten in the way to fully explore the ruins. Of course, the main reason the island is protected by the government  is that a research facilitywas built on a sister island in the 1950s. If it wasn’t for that, I would have already acquired what I needed months ago.”

Apparently, Garrus still wasn’t satisfied. “And you can’t just sneak onto the island why?”

“Mr. Garrus, I lack the skills and abilities to reach the island, cross 2 kilometers to reach the temple, then descend to its deepest level to retrieve the medallion before backtracking the way I came to sneak back off before sunrise – I would need at least a month and a team of 20 people.”

When Garrus was silent after her response, Shepard took that as his friend being satisfied by the answers, and got back to business. “And this will be the part where you say ‘this is where you come, Shepard’.” A hinting cough from Garrus made Shepard amend his statement. “…where you _two_ come in, Shepard and Mr. Garrus.”

“Correct.” Dr. T’Soni gave another nod. “The island is patrolled by the Greek military along the shore and a bit into the interior, but it’s a token force, really and there should be none within the actual temple itself, since not only is it in a secluded spot on the island, but historical preservation laws forbid it. Someone with your … _reputation_ … though should have no problem with that, though.” She pulled out a few more pages from the journal, yet held onto them. “I have maps to the island, as well as of the explored areas of the temple to give you… if you agree to do this, of course.”

“Well… let’s talk money first.” Shepard said as he leaned forward and holding himself in a serious manner now. “You do know my fees, right?”

“Yes… I’ve heard some things…” She then reached down underneath the table and pulled up a very large brown bag.

Alarmed at the very obvious thing she was about to do, Shepard suddenly stood up and reached out to make Dr. T’Soni put the very large bag full of money back out of sight. The distinctive click from a gun being cocked made him stop. Shepard’s bright blue eyes looked over in the direction of Professor Alenko and saw the table cloth near him poking up in very distinctly barrel-shaped point.

“I knew these guys couldn’t be trusted, Liara.” Professor Alenko growled. “He was just about to try to steal the money.”

“Don’t tell me you…” Liara’s eyes were wide open - her expression completely shocked - staring right at Kaidan as she stumbled on her words “…you… you didn’t bring a gun, did you?!”

There was another click before a wince crossed the face of the Professor when something obviously jabbed into his side. “Oh… the good Professor here isn’t the only one carrying, Doctor.” Garrus had a cold look on his face, as his steely eyes were locked on the other man with his gun drawn. “…of course, we do so because of occupational hazards like this – I don’t like people pulling guns on my friends, mister.”

“I’ll shoot him.” Alenko’s voice was cold and intense.

“No… you’ll shoot at him. You could miss, though.” Garrus’ words were colder. “Of course, when I shoot you, I won’t miss and you’ll be very dead.”

“Listen, I wasn’t trying to steal the money, I was just trying to stop her from flashing it around in a very public place because I don’t want some jackass coming after me, or if this deal goes south, after you, later.  And Garrus… he’s just trying to protect his own interests.So, put the guns away, both of you.” Shepard was as calm as ever, despite the tense situation.

“Sit back down first.” Alenko’s voice was still cold, but had eased up a bit on the intensity.

When Shepard did so, and after a few more tense moments, there was the click of the release of the hammer as the bump in the table cloth near the professor disappeared, followed by Garrus easing back into his chair after he uncocked his gun as well. Dr. T’Soni was still horrified, though.

Shepard looked at her. “I’m sorry if that all startled you, Doctor…” He reached out and took one of her hands, holding it reassuringly. “…now, normally, I would say this would be the end of the business transaction and tell you good luck in finding someone else, but, I can tell you’re really new at this ‘breaking about 20-or-so international laws’ thing here, so I’ll give you a free pass this time. Of course, that’ll be an extra $10,000, but, from the way you seem to be so passionate this medallion, I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”

“What?!” Alenko’s voice finally got loud for the first time. “You’re trying to extort us now?!

“Well, you did just threaten to shoot me.” Shepard replied as he let go of Liara’s hand and leaned back. “Actions do have consequences. We could just walk away right now, if Dr. T’Soni isn’t willing to pay.

The woman looked at her colleague. “Kaidan,we’ve put too much into this already.We can’t stop now.” She turned to look at Shepard. “$10,000 more is no problem, but I won’t be able to give you the additional fee until I give you the other half once the job is done.”

Shepard smiled, not only for the fact he was getting more money, but also that this doctor wasn’t as naïve as she could have been. “Alright, that works perfectly fine.” He held out his hand for her to shake.

She took her hand in her own, and the tension that had been building in her slowly flowed out. “I’m glad we were able to come to this agreement. Now,how soon can you be ready?”

When Shepard took his hand back, he began to scratch his chin and think. “Hmm… I think we can be ready by tomorrow night.” He looked at Garrus. “That sounds good to you?”

Garrus just gave a nod of approval.

“Alright, then.We’ll be ready tomorrow night. So,now would probably be the best time to give us things  like maps, notes about the island and the temple, or anything else that will help us, so we can know what we’ll need to get.” He pointed at the journal. “That right there should be great.”

Dr. T’Soni suddenly snatched it  off the table, and held it to her chest like a 3 year old clutching a precious toy. “No!” She actually sounded alarmed for a moment before talking a deep breath and regaining her composure. “I mean… there are things in here that are too valuable to let just anyone see.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “I have the maps now. What if I make copies of certain things I think will be most helpful to you while exploring the temple and just bring them to you tomorrow night?”

Letting the client know his launch location in the past had bitten Shepard in the ass a few times before, but he was willing to trust Dr. T’Soni, mostly because she just seemed too damn nice and innocent; the kind of nice and innocence you couldn’t fake; to be suspicious of getting double-crossed. Of course, Garrus was part of this and Shepard looked his way for his input. The olive-skinned man just gave a shrug.

“Okay… I guess that can work.” Shepard replied as he looked back at her.

Dr. T’Soni pulled out a few more pages from the journal,jotting her hotel name and number on one of the pages, and handed them and the bag of money to Shepard.

He let her know what time he would call her the next evening to tell her the meeting location, and then Shepard and Garrus proceeded to leave the café to head off to gather supplies.

Garrus was going through the pages that Dr. T’Soni had given them, and, as soon as they were a good distance away, he looked at Shepard as he held up the picture of the medallion. “This is _not_ Greek.”

Shepard nodded. “I know. Why else did you think that I really increased the fee for?”

“Why take the job when you know they’re lying to us?”

Shepard just gave a shrug. “Because, it seems like it’ll be exciting to see what the hell that thing really is.”

“And…?” Garrus wasn’t entirely buying it.

The biggest grin just broke out across Shepard’s face. “’And…’ nothing. I’m during this purely for the adventure.”

“I’ve seen better poker faces at a frat party where everyone is drunk and stoned.” Garrus shot back. “What else has got you so excited?”

“Garrus Vakarian, I have not the slightest clue of what you’re talking about…” Shepard grinned devilishly as he picked up his pace.

All that Garrus could do was let out a groan as he slapped his face. “You know, one of these days, you are going to be the death of me,like how it almost was in Panama last year.”

Shepard let out an irritated groan. “Do you always have to keep bringing up every little thing that’s happened to us in Panama over the years?”

“How else am I supposed to keep you in-check?” Now Garrus was the one with the grin on his face.

**  
**


	2. A Man of Integrity

It was nearing sunset. While Garrus was loading up the boat they had chartered with an old friend who lived in the area with their supplies, Shepard was waiting at the front of the docks for the arrival of Dr. T’Soni. He had factored in distance and traffic when he had told him to meet him at this location in an hour, and apparently the good doctor was trying to use up every last minute of the time.

Shepard suddenly felt a vibration from his pocket. Pulling out his cell, he read the text from Garrus.

_She here yet? Jenkins is getting crabby._

Right as he was about to text back, a cab pulled up right in front of him. The person who stepped out of it though was definitely not Dr. T’Soni.

“Well… I wasn’t expecting you, Prof.” Shepard was only a little surprised when Professor Alenko stepped out of the cab, apparently leaving his glasses back at the hotel and wearing a very tight white t shirt that showed off how in-shape he really was.

Instead of walking towards Shepard, though, the other man made his way towards the back of the cab, and pulled out a brown leather case and a small black duffle bag. “Well… that’s not the only thing you’re not expecting tonight, Shepard.” He said, as he also retrieved some rather large black cases of varying size.

“What’s that?” Shepard pointed to the cases, but he was well aware of what they were.

Once the cases were out of the back of the cab and the trunk lid shut, Professor Alenko gave it a few slaps and the cabbie was off. “I’m coming with you and Garrus.”

Shepard couldn’t help but laugh at the other man’s words. “Just because you look like you work out and you had the balls and the brains to bring a gun yesterday doesn’t mean you’ve got the skills to do this kind of stuff, and I’m not running a babysitting service.”

“Listen here, Shepard – I’ve spent the last five years of my life on this project with Dr. T’Soni, and I just can’t in good conscience let her trust something as important as this to some grave robber.” He picked up the duffle bag and walked over toward Shepard, where he dropped it at the other man’s feet. “I spent 8 years in the Canadian army, 6 of them in the CME, because it was the only way I could afford to get my degree in Linguistics. I was in actual combat,so you don’t need to babysit me. If it’s about the money, well…” he pointed towards the bag. “There’s $25,000 of my own money that I’ve been saving for another expedition, but this is more important, so go ahead and take it. But,regardless of what you say, I’m coming. I _have_ to because it’s just too damn importantto just trust it to you.”

The passion in the other man’s words was obvious, yet Shepard just stood there for a moment, looking at the professor. Finally, he took a deep breath, and began to respond. “You put up a good argument. Kind of hard to say no to, actually, but…”

“Don’t give me any buts, Shepard.” Alenko cut in. “I told you I’m going with you, no matter what.”

Shepard just laughed. “You know, if you would just let me finish…” he firmly placed his hand on the professor’s shoulder, which, to Shepard’s surprise, was not shrugged off, and looked right into his rich brown eyes. “…if you want to come along, you’re going to tell us what the hell this thing really is, because it’s sure as hell isn’t ‘ancient Greek’.”

The professor lost his aggressive, hard edge all of the sudden, becoming somewhat embarrasses and flustered in the face. “So… um… you kind of noticed that?” And then, as quickly as the man’s embarrassment had come, it was gone, but his aggressive tone did not return when he spoke again. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Shepard flashed an elated grin. “Being in this line of work for as long as I have… it just doesn’t seem like a real job unless there’s _someone_ lying to me.” He then got only a little bit serious. “So… come on, tell me what this medallion really is.”

The professor’s eyes shifted around a bit, putting his guard up again. “Well… can I tell you when we get on the boat? I… I really don’t want to discuss it out in the open.”

“Okay.” Shepard said with an agreeing nod. “We’ll get out of the bay, and then you tell us everything about what we’re really going after. If you don’t, we’ll just throw you off the boat.”

“No need for threats.” A bit of the edge suddenly returned to Prof. Alenko’s voice. “I’m a man of integrity. If I say I’ll do something, I’ll do it.”

Shepard gave him a nod of his head. “I believe you.” He then held out his hand for the man to take. “Welcome aboard, Professor Alenko… though, mind if I call you Kaidan? Because, honestly, calling you Professor Alenko all the time is just going to be a bit stuffy when you’re breaking the law.”

He didn’t seem exactly thrilled, but the professor gave a nod of his head as he took Shepard’s hand. “Yeah… I guess you have a point there… so I guess you can go ahead and call me by my name.”

After the firm handshake, though Kaidan may have used just a little bit too much of a firm grip, Shepard picked up the black duffle bag of cash and started to make his way towards the boats. “Come on, grab your gear and let’s go.” He said to Kaidan as he slowly started making his way. Of course, when he heard a few strained sounds coming from behind him, he turned to see the other man struggling with the supplies he brought. Shepard made his way back over to Kaidan and went to grab a few of the cases he had brought along. “Hey… let me give you a hand.”

“I’ve got this.” Kaidan said with a strained voice, struggling to cart around the diving and rappelling gear that Shepard knew was in the cases.

“Hey… you were smart enough to figure out what to bring.” Shepard said as he began to pull off some of the smaller cases. “Be smart enough now to know you can’t carry all of this to the ship yourself.”

With a defeated sigh, Kaidan relented and allowed Shepard to help him carry his gear. “Just don’t go thinking we’re friends now since I’m letting you help me carry this and calling me by my name.”

His comment made Shepard laugh. “I’m just trying to get things on a roll quicker – I’m sure Garrus is pacing a hole in the deck by now since he wanted to launch as soon as possible.”

He was right, of course. As soon as he and Kaidan reached the boat moored near the end of the docks, Shepard noticed Garrus pacing about on the deck. The olive-skined man, dressed in khaki shorts and a dark tee, stopped as soon as he saw Shepard with the professor, along with the cases they were carrying.

“Anything I need to know about, Shepard?” Garrus crossed his arms and arched one of his sharp eyebrows.

“The professor here convinced me to let him come along.” Shepard replied as he slid the duffle bag off his shoulder and tossed it to his friend. “That’s 25k right there… hopefully that’s enough to convince you to let him join too.”

Garrus picked up and opened the bag to see the stacks of cash in there, before looking at the other two men again. “Just curious about one thing – he just happened to know to pick up diving gear how…?” The obvious implication that Shepard had somehow planned this was not lost on anyone.

“I figured out a long time ago that anchoring a mile off-shore then swimming to shore is the only logical and safe way.” Kaidan spoke up. “The ship can’t get closer than that without the military getting on our asses, while taking a small boat ashore is just plain stupid since it would be too hard to hide, so the only option left is to dive, since the tanks and propellers can easily be hidden behind foilage without looking out-of-place.”

Shepard was now on-board. He placed a reassuring hand on Garrus’ shoulder. “Hey… relax… I know he’ll be able to keep up just fine.”

Garrus leaned in close to Shepard’s ear. “So, is this “Bring the Employer’s Pit Bull to Work Day” and no one told me about it?” His tone was hushed so that Kaidan could not hear the distain and sarcasm in his voice.

“It’s not.” Shepard’s cracked an amused grin. “He’s ex-military, and, just in case your eyes have suddenly failed to stop working, the man is probably in better shape than you. Plus, you’re getting an extra 25 thousand out of this, so just shut up and trust me.”

There was an irritated growl from Garrus, followed by a _tch_. “This better not be like Panama last July…”

“Always with the Panama jobs!” Shepard feigned exasperation before he let out a laugh. “Can you ever bring up an example where something that went wrong that wasn’t in Panama?”

Garrus’ usual smooth attitude came back to light. “Oh, sure… but the Panama jobs are just so over-the-top extreme examples, it’s impossible not to bring them up.”

“Um… is there something I need to know here?” Kaidan was now on-board and standing to the side of Shepard and Garrus.

“To never go to Central America with this bastard unless you enjoy running while being shot at, getting kidnapped, and getting thrown into a Panamanian jail, interrupted by occasional bouts of nearly drowning, Professor. But that’s nothing you really need to be concerned about happening tonight though.” A hint of annoyance had returned to Garrus’ voice.

“You can call me by my first name, Garrus.” Kaidan replied, his tone a little pointed as well.

“I’ll keep that in mind, _Professor_.”

“So…” Shepard said as he walked in between the two of them, and then looked at Garrus. “Everything ready to go?”

“Been ready,just been waiting on you _two_.” Garrus replied as he made his way off the ship to release its mooring.. Once he was back on the ship, he knocked on edge of the open cabin door. “Alright, Jenkins, let’s head out.”

“Gotcha, Garrus.” A voice from inside shouted out before the sound of the boat’s motor started up and the vessel began to move away from the dock, while the three men on deck sat down to save their energy for later.

When the boat was a good distance from the harbor, Shepard turned to look at Kaidan. “If I remembered correctly, you said you would explain some things to us.”

“He did now, did he?” Garrus’ attention was now at the ready as he locked his eyes onto the professor.

Kaidan let out a sigh, and opened his leather case. From within, he pulled out a dive-proof bag, from which he pulled out the journal of Dr. T’Soni.

“Well… looks like somebody’s probably going to be very pissed at you since you stole her precious journal.” Garrus commented as Kaidan opened it.

“It’s not like I stole it. Well, not exactly.” Kaidan defended himself. “I’m Liara’s assistant – she lets me take the journal whenever I want or need to – and, last night, she gave it to me to make copies of a few pages, which afterwards, I told her I wanted to go over it again since it had been a while since I had read it.”

“And she’s okay that you still have it while you’re on this excursion with us?” Garrus wondered.

Kaidan became tense. “Well, by now she might know that I’m going with you. You see, I didn’t tell Dr. T’Soni I planned on joining you, not directly, at least.”

“So, what, You left a letter?” The question from Garrus was not even remotely close to sounding serious.

“Umm…” the professor, though, started to look away, his face flushed. He then opened the book and began trying to focus the attention off of himself and onto the task at-hand. “The medallion - as I’ve been informed that you know as well, Garrus – is not of Greek origin, but of a civilization that predates Ancient Greece, and may be the origins of the legend of Atlantis – the Protheans”

Shepard was the one who spoke up instead of Garrus this time. “And, this civilization… these “Protheans”… they’ve never been mentioned before because…?”

“Well, like I said, their civilization very well could be the origins of Atlantis, so they were mentioned, just highly incorrectly.” The professor explained. He held out Dr. T’Soni’s journal so that both Shepard and Garrus could see a sketch of what looked to be a mural full of greek letters, with red lines connecting certain letter together to form a series of intersecting lines. “See this drawing? It was compiled by Liara’s grandfather almost 100 years ago – he was one of the members of the expedition into the temple we’re heading to, and was one of the first to theorize about this civilization. At first, it just appeared to be some kind of odd mural that, made no sense when translated. One thing just seemed to stick out like a sore thumb to him; A phrase that translated as “gates before them”. Liara’s grandfather, though, was the first to suggest that it could have been a result of trying to translate it too literally. When he began to play around with things… well…” A look of excitement came across Kaidan’s face as he pointed to the writing below the sketch and began to read. “Here are the doors to the Gates of the Before Ones, the ones who… lifted us from the bed of death and taught us to… and lay with sleeping God. Watch over the Gates of the Before Ones, for they signal… with the light of…

“And that makes sense to who, exactly?”  Garrus was more than just a bit skeptic.

“Well, not many.” Kaidan admitted. “Those are just the phrases both he was sure of the translations, and that I later confirmed. It’s hard to fully and accurately translate it because it uses an odd permutation of one of the first versions of Greek that I can only best theorize was influenced by these “Before Ones” the text talk about.”

Kaidan continued on with his main point. “Unfortunately, Dr. T’Soni’s grandfather never had the chance to continue his work;he was killed during World War II, and it wasn’t until  Liara inherited this journal when her father died that she examined it, and any new progress was made concerning this temple. She realized that it was more than just the phrases that made little sense.” The professor pointed out the red lines on the page before he pulled out a transparency from the back of the journal and overlaid it onto the sketch. “This is a map of the Mediterranean   around the time the upper section of the temple was built – the line intersect all the other islands where additional temples were erected, when you cross-reference them with modern-day maps. Now, Liara has visited them all, but most were completely lost to time, or are so badly damaged they provided very little insight beside a few oddly colored stones. This temple is our last possible place where we can find evidence of this lost culture.”

“I know I’ve seen the drawing of the medallion.” Shepard spoke up again, “but how are you so certain it’s at this temple? I know Dr. T’Soni was insistent that it was, but…”

“Ah!” Kaidan said as he held up a finger before flipping a few more pages in, and then held the journal so that the other two men could see. “There were stone tablets on the third sub-level that talked about it, as well as a few frescos that depicted it. Of course, everything was written in this odd dialect, but, from what’s been translated, all signs points to it being there at this temple.”

“You know, professor…” Garrus began as his eyes were now locked on the journal Kaidan held out. “…this all seems a little crazy…”

“Half of the Board of Directors at ISAW thinks the same thing.” Frustration overflowed from Kaidan’s words. “Part of the reason why Liara felt like there was no choice but to hire the two of you was because if she can’t produce more solid evidence, like the medallion itself, they’re going to cut the funding to most of her personal projects, stop approving her request for time off for lectures and expeditions… as well as let me go since I haven’t earned my tenure yet.”

Shepard reached out a hand and placed it gently on Kaidan’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry – I’m the best treasure hunter there is, and Garrus is the second-best. Together, we’ll get this medallion and then you and the good doctor can go tell those jackasses who think you’re crazy to go suck a dick.”

Kaidan’s jaw fell wide-open. “You… you can’t just tell one of the Boards of Directors at NYU to go… go ‘suck a dick’.”

“Well, it’s clear you don’t know Shepard one bit.” Garrus said as he let out a deep laugh.

Shepard joined in for a bit, until he noticed how it was just making Kaidan a little bit upset. “Seriously, don’t worry… Dr. T’Soni paid for a job to get done, and we _are_ going to deliver. Trust us… trust me.”

Kaidan became somber again as he put the journal away in its protective case. “That’s the problem, though – how can I fully trust someone with a reputation of lying, thievery, double-crossing, killing, and damaging so many historical sites?”

“You just have to.” Shepard replied as he started to ease back and relax. “But, if it makes you feel better, I only kill in self-defense, and the only time I ever double-cross anyone is when they try to do it to me first.”

“Not really.” Kaidan replied as he started to stare off into the last traces of daylight. “But, I guess I’m going to have to try to trust you anyways.”

**  
**


	3. The Decent

Getting from the boat to the shore was easy –even with the added baggage of towing the equipment they needed for the excursion through the sea. Before making the trek into the interior of the island, the three men found a nearby rock that offered decent cover to begin to stash their unneeded scuba gear, and to unload the contents they had within the larger waterproof containers they had brought ashore. Garrus had most of the equipment they needed to descend, while Kaidan had taken upon himself to hold the journal and everything needed to navigate their way to the lowest chamber, along with some odd tools, while Shepard carried “Plan B, C, and D”; handguns, smoke, flash-bang and frag grenades, and, as a last resort, plastic explosives.

Kaidan just stared wide-eyed at the equipment Shepard was unloading. “You do realize this is an abandoned ruin, right? We’re not storming some sort of fortified building.”

“Actually, Professor, we kind of are - there _are_ military personnel on the island, or did you forget?” Garrus spoke in a hushed tone. “You may say they don’t go into the temple, but that doesn’t mean some jackass who doesn’t follow orders won’t show up, and when that happens, all hell is going down. Better be too prepared than not.” He then shot a condescending smile at Kaidan. “Too bad we only have enough guns for Shepard and myself… I hope you’re good at knife fighting if things get too heated.”

“I’m not stupid.” Kaidan shot back as he opened the last of his cases, pulling out a gun strap with two pistols, along with a belt with a few spare clips. “What I was talking about were the explosives and the grenades.”

The man with the guns just flashed a cocksure grin. “Hey… with me it’s best to be prepared for the unexpected.” He picked up one of the guns from the case, slid in the clip, and loaded the chamber before tossing it to Garrus.

“I’ve been getting that impression for half the night now…” a hint of unease was in the professor’s voice as he was securing his guns and ammo to his body.

“You know, as much as I love to converse under the moon – and I do- let’s hurry up and get our asses in this temple and get that medallion.” Garrus chimed in as he secured a gun harness to himself as well. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

Shepard let out a sigh as he loaded himself out with armament. “Every night mission gives you the creeps, Garrus.”

“Well, that’s because something creepy, like people who want to kill us, or pygmy monkeys, is always lurking in the shadows, Shepard.” Garrus replied back as the three began to stash their now-empty hard cases they no longer needed, while they slid back-on the smaller ones they had kept, and made their way towards the temple by the faint moonlight.

The trek from the shore to the temple had been relatively uneventful; they had one close encounter with a patrol unit, but the three men were quick and silent on their feet, and avoided detection.The real challenge of the night was now at hand, as the temple was now in sight. Of course, from the condition of the exterior, calling it a temple was being extremely generous. The years had not been kind to most of the structure – the roof was gone, a few holes in the ground where the floor had fallen through to the lower level, half the pillars had fallen, and most of the details and embellishments had faded away due to the passage of time.

“It’s been almost 100 years since someone’s been in this place…” Garrus mused as the three maneuvered through the rubble, with Kaidan leading the way, “…are we even sure the lower levels are going to be intact?”

“According the notes of the lower areas that were explored - because of the way the entire temple has been constructed - if any of the lower levels would have collapsed in, this entire place should have.” Kaidan replied rather bluntly. “Also, don’t judge this place by these upper ruins – they’ve been like this since the place was first explored in 1932. The level below this has been worn down a bit over time as well, but, the second and third levels are said to be awe-inspiring.”

“Well, you can be all awe-inspired as you want to be, professor, just as long as you remember we’re not on a fieldtrip here. We’re just grabbing this medallion and getting out, not poking around..” Garrus said in an apparent need to clarify.

“Hey… a little poking around never hurt anyone.” Shepard spoke up, amusement filling his voice.

“You’re definitely not allowed to poke around _anything,_ Shepard.” The other treasure hunter gave yet another clarification.

“Yeah, yeah… whatever…”

Shepard was suddenly cut off by Kaidan. “Alright, here’s the entrance to the lower levels.” He spoke just loudly enough to be heard over the two treasure hunters, yet not too loud that it might carry beyond the ruins. “Once we’re a few steps in, it should be alright to turn on our lamps, and then it’s a straight shot to the next stairwell to sub-level two.” He then pulled the only case he had brought with him; the one that he had carried the journal in; off his back, and pulled out a video camera.

That made Shepard raise an eyebrow in confusion. “Um… Kaidan, just a little bit of advice… typically, when you’re breaking the law, you don’t want to record it.”

Kaidan flipped open the cam, ignoring the warning. “I need to record the interior,  especially the newer areas when we reach them, for research. It’s not like I plan on posting this on the internet or anything, but it’s important.”

“Well, I nominate you to cover our legal fees if they arrest us then, Professor Alenko.” Garrus added as the three made their way down the stairs.

As they reached the first sub-level, and turned on their lamps and flashlights, it was just as Kaidan had described it would be – mostly intact, with some of the fresco somewhat recognizable, but with obvious signs of the passage of time as most of the colors were faded and a few pillars had even begun to crumble.

Kaidan then shined his flashlight forward, and about 30 meters away was the way to the next level. “See, like I said;a straight shot.”

As they walked forward, though, Garrus began to look around, examining the layout of the area. “Well, isn’t this place just so… cozy.”

“What were you expecting, a bed-and-breakfast?” Shepard teased back.

“Well, it would be nice that one of these days instead of finding just more ruins inside the ruins, to find a nice-plus 4-star hotel with lots of beautiful women and all the free alcohol you can drink?” Garrus mused.

He found what his friend had said amusing. “And not put my life in danger? Where would the fun be in that?”

“I think you’re forgetting, Shepard, that you kind of have a way with making women want to kill you, so there’d still be a chance your life could be in danger.” A twisted smirk came across Garrus’ face. “You know, just like…”

“If the next words out of your mouth are “…every time you’re in Panama” I swear to god, Garrus, I will pistol whip you.” Shepard’s voice was low and serious-sounding, while the gun was already in his grip, his thumb ready to unsnap the strap and pull it out.

“Um…” Kaidan turned his head around to look at them, a slightly unsettled look on his face at the sight of Shepard’s hand on the gun.

The sight of the professor’s face afraid made Shepard let out a deep sigh as he took his hand of the gun. “Don’t worry; I was just joking with him.”

“Apparently, he must have lost his sense of humor somewhere in his life.” Garrus shot the snide comment and a bit of annoyed look towards the professor.

“Well, excuse me for getting a little nervous when someone threatens to pistol whip someone.” There was some sarcasm in Kaidan’s voice. Garrus went to open his mouth to say something in return, but Kaidan cut him off by raising his hand. “You know what, let’s just drop this before it becomes something it shouldn’t, and keep going. I would hate to have to pistol whip someone.”

A groan escaped Garrus’ throat. “See… it’s just not as funny when you do it as when Shepard does.It’s all about the timing, and you just don’t have it.”

“Who said I was joking?” Kaidan shot back. 

Things became quiet until they reached the next set of steps. As they descended into the second level, and the light of their lamps began to fill the room, Kaidan’s gaped at the sights before him;nearly pristine columns, with rich blues and tarnished gold accenting the walls, as well as barely-faded frescos that had been depicted by sketches in Dr. T’Soni’s journal. As they stood in the first area of the second sub-level, Kaidan was recording as much as he could with the illumination from the lamps and flashlights, making constant sounds of amazement as the group continued forward. After some time, the awe was overwhelming. “I… I can’t believe I’m actually here. I’ve seen the sketches for so long…  I just… it’s just because how we’ve been getting denied constantly by the Greeks to come here… I just wish she could be here too.” But, a quick pat on the shoulder from Shepard let him know that he could be amazed all he wanted, as long as he kept on walking.

Unlike the pathway from the first sublevel to the second, the path from the second to the third was not so straight-forward – it was within an inner chamber at the furthest end, and this sublevel was much smaller, with lower ceilings and wider columns. 

“I hate tight, enclosed spaces.” Garrus broke the silence again as they were walking along.

It was Kaidan who responded to him this time. “Isn’t being claustrophobic kind of bad in your line of work?”

A slight chuckle escaped from Garrus’ throat. “Who said anything about me being claustrophobic? Places like these are just bad for gunfights.”

“I have a feeling I’m going to regret asking this…” a groan escaped Kaidan’s mouth. “…where is there a good place for a gunfight?”

“Gardens, electronic stores,” An elated grin flashed across Garrus’ face. “Antique shops, but only if they’re classy.” That last one pulled a good laugh out of Shepard.

“Right… I’ll remember that.” Kaidan went back to focusing on the surroundings, and then suddenly pointed to three entryways near one another. “There, the one in the middle. That will lead us to the stairs down.”  He picked up his pace;the professor was practically running, forcing Shepard and Garrus to quicken their pace as well, though they didn’t go as fast as Kaidan had.

 Though Shepard couldn’t say _exactly_ what Garrus was thinking when they finally caught up to Kaidan in the third sublevel, he could guess his long-time friend was thinking pretty much the same lines as him. “Well… I wasn’t quite expecting this…”

In actuality, calling the area a sublevel probably wasn’t the most accurate term – cavern was. The only added structures to the room were three sections of walls,filled with pictures of the medallion and the text that were in Liara’s journal.  On the side of the cave from where the three men stood, a ruined bridge stood, with a very large, elaborate door at the far end. Everything else was natural formations, including the massive chasm that Dr. T’Soni had informed them of, full of massive stalagmites and stalactites, as well as equally massive natural limestone columns.   Already Kaidan had begun to record everything he could, while Garrus and Shepard stood and took in the sight.

After a few minutes of looking the cavern over, Garrus turned to his friend. “It looks like we’re actually going to have to work for our pay this time, Shepard.” He slid the ropes slung over his body off, as well as his backpack.

“Don’t you mean I’m going to have to work for our pay?” Shepard was laughing as he took off his backpack and caught the supplies that Garrus had thrown towards him.

“Well, you are the resident crazy of this dynamic duo…” Garrus turned around to look at Kaidan, still recording. “…well, _trio_ , but you get the point.” He took a few steps towards the edge to look down. “So… got any ideas on how you’re gonna do this?”

Shepard was already walking away, towards one of the cavern walls. “About half of it… I can always work out the rest later.” The first thing he had removed was a few poles that locked together. He tied one end of of the sets of ropes to it before driving it into the ground a few feet. He then fished out some spikes and a hammer from the backpack, tied one to the end of the other set of rope, pulled out the line about 10 feet, then pulled out his knife and cut it.

“Shepard… what the hell are you doing?” The other treasure hunter asked, suspicious of his friend’s current actions.

“Don’t worry.” Shepard reassured his friend as he removed a pair of climbing claws and placed them on his hands, trying to put his friend’s concerns at ease. “We’ve got 400ft of rope – that’s more than enough – so I’m gonna make a couple of rope swing for me to get across, while there’s a rope tied to my waist that’s tethered over here.  I take the more dangerous way across, while you and Kaidan pretty much get to sort of zip-line across.”

“And how the hell do you plan on getting each one of your swing ropes into the walls?” It was obvious Garrus thought it was crazy, even with all the things he had done.

“Like I said… I can work out the rest later.” The treasure hunter wore his little cocksure grin – and he knew it only made his friend worry even more now. Of course, Garrus wasn’t going to stop him – his best friend had never stopped him from doing anything crazy.

The spikes were driven into the ground and the wall with little effort, and, when Shepard was satisfied that they were secure, he turned to look at the other two men with him. “Well, guys… wish me luck!”

Kaidan didn’t even get out his “What the hell are you doing?!” before Shepard was already using the rope he planted into the wall to run across it, gathering momentum with two good passes, and grabbing a bit of the stony ledge. He found a decent spot to plant his foot before he used one hand to drive the next spike into the wall before securing it with his hammer. After that was done, he tied the newly-spiked rope around his waist and hung there for a moment while he made the next section of swing with swift, efficient motions in moments, repeating the process again and again.

“He’s gonna get himself killed!” Kaidan’s voice had a hint of panic in it as Shepard was making his fourth rope swing.

“Well… he does get 55% of the cut for a reason.” Garrus’ tone was now a bit calmer now that Shepard was quite literally getting into the swing of things.

“It should be 70%” Shepard had stopped for just a moment to look back over towards Garrus. “I do most of the work.”

“Until you get your ass in trouble and I have to come in and save it, then _I’m_ the one doing most of the work.” Garrus reminded his friend.

“Yeah, yeah…” With a brush of his hand, Shepard went back to inching forward.

It wasn’t a slow process, though it wasn’t fast either;It had taken him 20 minutes to get about three-quarters of the way there, where he had actually reached a section of the wall where he could stand freely without the risk of falling to his death. As started to drive a new stake into the wall, he was greeted by a loud thud when the spike hit the stone, yet barely went in. “Well… shit.” He went to another spot on the wall, but it only produced the same result.

“Problem?” The shout of concern from Garrus near the entrance had made him turn back to look.

“Um…” Shepard started stabbing the wall again and again with the spike “It’s not going in.”

Even from over 150 feet away, the smirk on Garrus’ face was still clearly visible. “Welcome to my world. I hear that all the time.” He then began to wave towards himself. “Head on back… we’ll figure out another way.”

But, Shepard knew there was no other way, orat least no other way to start from, since he had gone over every inch of the cavern from the spot they entered. Giving up was also not an option;his stubborn pride wouldn’t allow him to. So, he turned around and started looking around at the cavern from the ledge he was on. About 8 feet in front of him was a rather good sized column. His eyes then traced a path from there along the natural formations.

“Actually… I have a better idea…” Shepard said as he untied the rope from his waist that had connected him to the previous rope swing.

“What are you doing?” It seemed as if both men at the one end shouted out at the same time, though Kaidan was the one who was the one Shepard had heard the most.

Shepard didn’t reply though. Instead, he used the few feet of space from the ledge for a starting point for his leap towards the column. At the apex of the arc, all time seemed to stand still for just a moment, before it all came rushing back double-time, the exhilaration rocketing throughout his entire body as he slammed into the limestone, and, in a split second, held on for dear life. In the back of his head, he could almost hear Garrus and Kaidan shouting at him, but now that he was in this moment,the rest of the world seemed to be like a blur. Using the small claws strapped to the palms of his hands to keep his grip, he began to make his way down the limestone column about 10 feet where it had begun to come together with another column. After moving over to the next one, he began to climb up and slightly towards the side, angling himself to just the right position to leap onto a section that still remained of the dilapidated bridge.

He landed on the remains of the bridge with a loud thud, accompanied by a sudden shake in the barely-together structure beneath his feet that didn’t stop shaking; that was his cue to start running towards the gap between this section of ruined bridge and the next , attached to the far-side of the cavern. His blood was flowing even faster now, his heart feeling as if it was about to burst through his chest, as the felt the old stone beneath his feet start to change angles for a slight moment before it fell. As he reached the very edge of the bridge, which was 2 feet lower than it had been seconds ago, he put all his force and effort into kicking off and leaping towards the next section that was about 6 feet away. All the air was knocked out of him as he was caught at the guts by the ledge. After hanging there for a moment, he finally dragged himself up from the edge, turned, and gave a quick little salute to the two men on the other side.

Now that he was on the other end, it didn’t take long at all to set up the another set of locking telescopic spikes in the backpack with the rope he had into a line for the other two men to use to cross with a motorized pulley. In about 10 minutes, the two men on the other end began to cross. The first one to cross was Kaidan. It came as a bit of a shock to Shepard to see that the professor had this look of rage on his face. He didn’t even have his feet on the ground yet when he began to tear into the treasure hunter.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” He didn’t yell, but the harshness in his words spoke volumes without having to resort to the volume. “You could have died!”

A teasing smile crossed Shepard’s face. “You know… for a person who doesn’t fully trust me and even threaten to shoot me yesterday, you seem awfully concerned about me right now.”

Kaidan had just touched his feet to the other side. Gone from his face was the rage, now replaced with a sullen look. “I’ve… I’ve already ruined someone’s life because of this medallion… I… I don’t want anyone to actually die over it.”

The smile left Shepard’s face, as he tried to act cool and casual about what he had just done. “Hey… don’t worry about it – I know what I’m capable of, and I knew what I was doing. It was risky, sure, but I’m familiar with high-risk situations and I wouldn’t of have tried it if I knew I couldn’t of have done it.” The words were a lie, but he hoped it was enough to get the professor to stop his sudden sullenness. He then looked around and pointed out to the walls around them. “Hey… you should probably go ahead and record stuff over here too, you know, before Garrus gets over here and starts getting all cranky about things.”

What Shepard said seemed to do the trick, because Kaidan gave a nod as he pulled out the camera again. “You’re right…” he started making his way over towards one of the murals, but suddenly stopped and turned around. “Hey… um… you’re not planning on making any more death-defying attempts tonight, are you?”

“I never plan on doing death-defying stunts – I just go with what’s thrown at me and improvise with what I’ve got.” Shepard’s classic cocksure grin returned to his face again.

“Well, let’s hope for no more curve balls then…” A hint of a smile came across the other man’s face. “…because if something like that happens again I might just start going grey early.” After that, Kaidan turned to get start recording the images on the walls.

A few minutes later, Garrus was across. He made his way over towards his partner and leaned in close. “Shepard, what you just did ranks pretty high up there on your list of ‘most insane things ever done’.” His voice then dropped to a low whisper. “And I think you gave the poor professor a mild heart-attack.”

“It was the only way – you know I wouldn’t of have done it otherwise.” It was the truth, but, part of him now wished there had been another way across; the look of hurt from Kaidan was slowly starting to eat away at the inside of Shepard.

Garrus gave a nod. “Yeah… doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.” He started making his way towards the opening in the wall that led into the next area.  “So,we going to get this job done and over with, or what?”

Kaidan looked over at Garrus. “Yeah… for once, I’m inclined to agree with you, Garrus. I think between one of my greatest dreams coming true and the little stunt Shepard just pulled, my heart really can’t take much more. The sooner we’re done and over with, the sooner I can bring this all to Dr. T’Soni and get it analyzed.”

Shepard didn’t say anything, though; he was still lost in thought over the stunt he had just pulled, as well as slightly hung up over the professor words towards him.  Instead, he gave his friend a nod and silently made his way over to where Garrus and Kaidan stood. The three together then proceeded into the opening in the wall, down a long, dark hallway that seemed to stretch for a long while. It ended in a stone wall with a gap that a man could easily pass through.

“Alright, Garrus, you go in first, then Kaidan, and I’ll follow up in the rear.” The treasure hunter suggested, and which the other two men complied.

As Shepard slid out of the gap and joined his companions, there could have been no way to expect what he saw.

“You know, correct me if I’m wrong…” Garrus said, filled with equal parts of shock and awe. “…but I don’t think this is Greek.”

**  
**


	4. The Archive

He had been a treasure hunter for over a decade now and been to all corners of the world;from the Himalayas to the Dead Sea, within the Rainforests of South America, to the Sahara in Africa.  He had been to every city imaginable, and to a few small villages that were beyond all belief, but, at no point at all had Shepard ever seen anything quite like this Prothean temple. The cracked, blood-crimson walls of the octagonal shaped chamber were supported by moss-covered sleek, dark grey, geometric pillars that held the dark angular dome ceiling hundreds of feet above. Tarnished gold was spread about the entire room in unknown designs, and in the middle of the room stood a large sleek, dark grey slab on a central dais. There were several other structures, like small little shrines, throughout the entire chamber. It didn’t take a rocket scientist,or more aptly in this situation, an archeologist,to know that this place was the historical find of a lifetime… every lifetime. Shepard didn’t have words for what was going through his head right now, so he could only just imagine what was going through the head of the head of the professor who had spent so long to get here.

“So… has your heart started beating again?” He asked when he looked over at the dropped-jaw academic.

“Well, we’re laying eyes on something that is going to change our entire perspective of history – something I’ve spent 6 years of my life on to help prove true.” The black-haired man said, as he shook his head. “…but I’ll… I’ll let you know when it does.”

One side of Shepard’s mouth curled into a smile. “Well, don’t die on me here… it’ll be a bitch to get your body back across that chasm.”

Kaidan let out a good, deep laugh. “I’m going to be so busy for the next… God, I don’t even know… going over everything here - you know, once the Greeks officially allow us to enter here in legally a few weeks - so, yeah… I don’t have the time to die.”

That brought a smile to Shepard’s face. “Well then, I guess we better start looking this place over for that medallion then.” He looked Garrus. “You take the right side of the room, while I’ll take the left side. Go through everything you can and grab anything that isn’t a piece of stone.” He then looked back at Kaidan. “You take the center, look around the dais for the medallion, and…” he walked in closer to whisper into the professor’s ear “… if you happen to pause a bit to get some more footage, well, I won’t bitch at you.”

The two other men gave Shepard a nod to let him know they understood what to do. “Great.” Shepard started to make his way towards the left section of the chamber. “Garrus, once you’ve checked out everything over there, head towards the central dais.”

The three men went off in different directions to inspect their separate areas. There were 5 shrine-like structures in the area Shepard had claimed for himself. As he looked into the first one, while he did not find the medallion, he did find an opaque blue-green slab with odd curved gold lines inlaid on it. He turned around to shout at the others. “Hey! I found something! It’s not the medallion, but it’s… well, it’s some sort of slab”

“Green, with gold lines on it?” Garrus shouted back.

“Yeah!” Shepard replied. He went to grab it. The slab moved a bit, but did not come out. “Seems like it’s stuck though!”

There was a bit of silence from Garrus for a moment, before he shouted back. “Hey… it looks like it goes down into this thing!”

Since Shepard could not pull it out, he guessed it wouldn’t hurt to push the slate down. As the slate locked into place with a click, a slight hum accompanied it right after, followed by a faint glow emanating from within the altar and shining through the slate. “Umm… Garrus… did something happen with your slate?”

“Depends on your definition of “something “. If you’re asking if it started humming and glowing” the voice of Shepard’s friend was a bit uneasy. “…then, yeah, something happened.”

“Something happened over here too.” Kaidan called out from the middle of the room. “Something shifted on this slab on the dais, and I think it’s starting to glow too. See if there’s any other of those slates you’ve found… maybe they’ll do something.”

Shepard went to the next of the structures, finding yet another of the plates. Pressing it down like the first resulted in the exact same thing – click, hum, glow – as well as Kaidan reporting in that something else had shifted on the central dais as soon as Garrus had inserted the slate on his side as well. That and the professor confirmed the slab on the dais definitely was now glowing. Again and again, Shepard repeated the process, and again and again, the same thing happened. It was on the fifth and final that something different happen. The same click, hum, glow still occurred, but, there was a lot more glowing than Shepard, or anyone else most likely, expected.

From the pillars of dark grey, dark recesses that Shepard had originally thought were just decorative recesses began to glow in a faint cool white light, illuminating the entire chamber, much brighter than the men’s lanterns had done. A sudden rumble came next, and then along the four of the eight walls in the room – including the wall they men had entered through the crack – sections began to split open to reveal tall, narrow archways, three of them leading into other chambers where more of the light came through.

“Okay… so did we just find like a 2000 year old UFO?” Garrus spoke up. “Because… yeah, glowing lights seem to be a little too advanced for an ancient civilization.

“I… I don’t think so...” Kaidan said as he looked at the now-illuminated section of the slab on the dais. “I think I hear something too… get over here and give me a hand.”

Shepard and Garrus both made their way towards the dais. When they reached it, Kaidan pointed to what looked like a panel. The three all pulled out their knives and began to pry the thing open, and, once they did, revealed what appeared to be several streams of water combining into a pool, which then illuminated.

“It… it looks like some kind of chemical reaction, creating some kind of luminescent chemical.” Kaidan said with astonishment. “If it is… I mean… the implications are unimaginable. I need to get a sample of this… find someone to analyze it… ”

 First, Kaidan dipped the tip of his knife into the liquid, and rubbed it against the tip of the finger of his glove. Satisfied, he pulled out his canteen, dumped out the water from within, and, with his gloved hand, dipped it into the water to fill it. He admired the light that poured out of the translucent blue container for a moment before putting it into one of his two bags, and then afterwards discarding his glove - just to be safe.

“Okay, professor,” Garrus began as soon as Kaidan was standing again. “So, now that we’ve been totally thrown for a loop with the crazy glowing water, but still no medallion and three paths to choose from, what do you think is the best choice of action?”

“Well…” Kaidan began, as he leaned over the slab and pointed at the glowing green panel “…while you and Shepard were turning on the lights, I was going over this – it looks to be a map.” He then pointed towards the journal that he had laid out near the map. “I’ve been going over some of the writing on this map, and it’s oddly similar to the odd dialect of Greek I found, yet… well… it’s a bit more mutated…”

“Mutated how?” Shepard asked.

“Well…” Kaidan pointed out to a character in the book that looked somewhat similar to one on the glowing slab “this is the Greek letter Omega in the journal - well, an early form of it, at least – while this one looks like Omega as well… but with some elements of – crazy enough – Ancient Sumerian.” He then point to another character on the map. “And this one seems to be using some elements of Hurrian…” Kaidan suddenly pulled out a sheet of paper from the back and started to make some notes “So… if this language is really a hybrid… or, more likely…” The professor’s mouth slowly opened wide, along with his eyes. “I… I think I can read this…” His usually low, husky voice was lower than normal, and full of shock, but also accomplishment and joy.

“Well, that’s great – really great, Professor.” Garrus said as he crossed his arms. “So, does it say where the medallion is?”

“Don’t you get it, though?” The professor turned to the olive-skinned treasure hunter. “With what I’ve just figured out, it completely changes everything both I and Dr. T’Soni have ever theorized about these people! They’re possibly much older than we initially thought! This is the single greatest discovery… ever!”

“What I think Garrus is trying to get at, Kaidan, is…” Shepard placed his hand on the professor’s shoulder, “…if we don’t get this medallion, your Board of Directors is going to shut you down before you get the evidence.”

Kaidan held up his camera. “But, we have this footage…”

“...that you got by ignoring about 10 international historical preservation laws to get.” Shepard finished. “Your voice is on the tape – there’s no way to mask it without causing suspicion. Now, I’m no academic type, but I assume most of them are kind of stuffy and they don’t like people breaking laws to get things. Bringing the medallion… well, you could always say you found it in the ocean or it washed up on a nearby shore. ”

The professor let out a sigh. “You’re… you’re right. I need to focus – as hard as it’s gonna be.” He turned back towards the map and looked it over. He jotted a few things down on paper and began to play with some letters. After a few minutes, Kaidan gave a nod to himself, the stood back up. “I think it should be in the Central Archive.” He pointed towards the middle path before he picked up the journal and began to make his way forward.  Shepard and Garrus were right on his heels.

As they were following Kaidan, Garrus asked. “So… Central Archive?”

“If I translated it right...” Kaidan was a bit unsure.  “I mean, I just took what I know of Greek and Sumerian and made a couple guesses – got creative – but, if I’m right… yeah… Central Archive – or more accurately “central building of great knowledge” - making this place some sort of ancient library.”

“Wait… if this place is a library, why didn’t it say it was on the walls by the chasm?” Garrus wanted to know.

“My guess? Probably couldn’t read what’s written here.” Kaidan gave out what seemed his best conjecture. “…maybe the ancient Greeks were only taught part of the language? Or maybe, they based their own off of a fragment? I can’t be for sure until I study everything further.”

They crossed the threshold into a much smaller room that had a massive pit with spiraling stone steps leading downward. A spiral stream of blue light glowed along the wall of the pit, illuminating the way. The steps seemed to have gone on forever, leading them deeper and deeper into the earth, and leaving Shepard and his companions wondering if they would ever end.

As they went lower and lower, a faint sound grew louder as they went deeper.

“That sounds a lot like the sea.” Garrus said, breaking the silence between the three. He then took in a deep sniff of the air. “Smells like the sea too.”

“Well, on the map, there was another thing I think might have been “entrance” on this level…” Kaidan spoke hesitantly. “The same characters appeared in the  by the corresponding spot from where we entered in the central chamber, so maybe there was a seaside entrance… and it flooded over the centuries?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure I know how to hold my breath if I need to.” There was a bit of boyish anticipation in Shepard’s voice.

That made his friend laugh. “You _would_ be excited about having to dive to get to the treasure.”

 After what seemed like an eternity, though, the end of bottom of the pit was in-sight –though not a drop of water was in sight - and, a few minutes later, they were walking into yet another chamber.

If Shepard had to describe the first chamber, it would have been “breath-taking”. The Central Archive, though, it blew the first one out of the water. It bore the same aesthetics as the other chambers they had seen, yet it had stand the test of time much better – the walls and pillars seemed to be in extremely good condition. In addition to the well-preserved structure of the chamber, streams of old, tattered cloth – they looked as if they could have been same blood crimson as the wall centuries ago – flowed from the ceiling to the ground. And, most noticeable of all, encircling the center of the room were seven dark grey and tarnished gold pylons with bluish-green crystals that took in the light from the room and made it dance within them. Directly in the center of it was a raised circular dais, like in the central chamber, with what appeared to be several altars,different from the ones in the main hall, encasing a pedestal in the center.

The three approached the center of the dais, and instantly, a wide smile crossed Shepard’s face. “Well, lookie there…” Set in the top of the pedestal was the medallion that they sought.

Kaidan rushed up towards it. His hand gently caressed the still-polish looking surface. It was roughly the size of a saucer, golden with several of the same odd bluish green materials that had comprised the slates of the first chamber. He went to take it out of the pedestal, but could not get a grip. He then pulled his knife out, but couldn’t fit the tip of the blade into the very tight groove between the pedestal and the medallion.

“Damn it!” Kaidan growled in frustration before he started to rub his hands up and down and all over the pillar in search

“We could always blast it out of there with the C4.” Garrus casually suggested. Of course, the idea was quickly shot down by the nasty look Kaidan shot him.

“Or maybe the way to unlock it is in one of these alter-things, like how the ones in the main chamber powered up everything?” Shepard threw out.

The three began to search around the dais in the altars, but they found nothing but more of the same odd slates, except there were several per altar, and not secured in like the ones in the main chamber, as they came out of the slots they were stored.  After quite some time of going through each altar, with no luck of finding a way to release the medallion, the three gathered around it again.

Kaidan’s eyes became locked on the medallion again. “There’s got to be a way to get this thing out of here…”

“That’s not going to be your problem any longer, Professor Alenko.” A cold, twisted voice rang out through the air, accompanied by the sound of a cocking gun. “Now, everybody turn around nice and slowly and I’ll make sure not to kill you too slowly. That includes you too, professor; My orders are to bring back the journal, and,if possible,you,back alive. So, be like the smart Dr. T’Soni and don’t fight.“

That voice was a voice Shepard, and Garrus, knew far too well. He shot a serious glance at Garrus, and, as the three slowly started to turn around, Garrus suddenly dived and pulled Kaidan down behind cover while Shepard turned fully around to look pale-skinned man, deep scars etched into the sides of his face, right in the dull blues of his eyes as he fell to his knees behind cover. Shepard’s head was barely under cover when a storm of bullets few above his head as they reigned loose from what sounded like multiple guns.

“Shepard?” There was a purr of anticipation in the new man’s voice. “Well… this job just got a lot more satisfying.”

Panic, confusion and rage filled Kaidan’s eyes as he looked towards Shepard. “Friend of yours?” The comment instantly caused a look of rage that dwarfed that of the professor’s to take over Shepard’s face, despite the way Kaidan had obviously meant the comment.

“Word of advice, professor.” Garrus said as he looked at Kaidan. “Never refer to Saren Arterius as a friend of anyone… especially Shepard. Those two… they have a very long, and very nasty history.”

“What kind of history?!” Kaidan demanded. It was obvious from the tone that, even in this situation, wasn’t going to drop the subject.

Shepard took a deep breath. “It goes back further, but 2 years back, that son of a bitch killed a very good friend of mine and Garrus… her name was Ashley.” Thinking back to his old friend and companion,the images of her face flashing back into his mind, a boiling rage began to overflow within him. Shepard dug through his backpack, pulling out one of the flash-bangs. “I’m going to kill him…”

Those words brought a smile to Garrus as he pulled out his gun and cocked it. “Oh, I was hoping you were going to say that. So… how many man did you see with him?”

“Eight.” Shepard said as he pulled out his gun and cocked it back as well. “But I saw some moving lights in the hall behind him, so there are probably going to be more.”

“Oh, Shepard…” Saren started purring out again. “I hope you don’t think you’re going to get past me and my men… there’s a lot throughout this place and the temple. Even if you could get past us, it’s not going to do you much good. We found your scuba gear and that scrawny little boat pilot off the coast. That man’s blood just made to seem the flames dance higher as his boat burned.” A single pair of footsteps began to echo as Saren’s voice grew closer. “Give up now and I’ll promise I won’t hurt the professor at all, and I’ll even make your friend Garrus, that is you, right, Garrus? It has to be since you two are never far apart. I’ll make Garrus’ death swift. Unfortunately, I still have to make you suffer, so no quick death for you.”

“You see, Saren, there’s a problem with that…” Shepard shouted back. “I won’t let myself die until there’s a bullet in-between your eyes.”

A deep, menacing, yet very amused laugh came erupting from the mercenary, with a few of his men joining in.

“What does he want with you, the journal, and the medallion?” Garrus suddenly shot at Kaidan.

The professor was beyond confused. “Someone, I don’t know who though, must want the research.”  Kaidan shot right back. “There’s a lot of data in this book… this island, this temple isn’t the only thing in the book, just the only concrete thing. With this place, though… it’s more than enough to cement those findings. And the probably want me since I’ve had a lot better luck at translations than Dr. T’Soni has had.”

“So, Shepard, what’s the plan?” Garrus turned to look at his friend.

Though they had some advantages with cover, Shepard knew that the three of them were in a bad situation. Anger and thoughts of taking out his revenge for Ash’s death filled his thoughts, but at the same time, he knew there was a high-chance that he, Garrus or Kaidan; a man who had nothing to do Ashley; could be badly hurt or not even make it out of the temple alive. With only the faintest hints of uncertainty, Shepard turned to the other to his companions. “This dais gives us the advantage;  Cover and a clear shot if Saren is dumb enough to try to have his men surround us. We’ll use this to pick them off one-by one fight our way out of here.”

A pleased smile crossed Garrus’ face.  “About time. That bastard has lived for too long.”

The professor, though, did not share the other’s sentiments. “Look, this Saren guy killed a good friend of yours, that’s clear enough to see,  but this isn’t the time or place for revenge. There’s the other exit in the back of this chamber. There’s gotta be a way we can get out.”

“I fail to agree, professor.” Garrus shot back. “I think this is the perfect time to get revenge. Anyways, what about your precious medallion? I thought you didn’t want some stupid thugs stealing your ‘life’s work’.” His words were like whips, lashing out and cracking hard, but he kept going. “As for that ‘exit’ we don’t know if it even is an exit.  Sure, we can smell seawater, but who knows if there’s a big enough hole for us to get out to open waters or the conditions.”

“This site is everything to me!” Kaidan shot back with words equally as pointed. “But what good is it going to be if I’m dead? What good will you killing that bastard be if you’re dead too? I have my video and I’m taking a few slates. So, as much as I don’t want to leave the medallion behind, I am because that son of a bitch wants the journal, and that’s just not going to happen, and I would rather take my chances with trying to escape by the sea. You should hold your life in higher value than wasting it on avenging someone.”

Garrus leaned in and growled at the professor. “I think it’s a pretty damn good way to use a life, actually. Dying by running away – that’s a waste of a perfectly good life.”

The more the other two fought back and forth the more Shepard thought more and more on what to do. There were risk of death with both plans and, sure, part of him so wanted to agree with Garrus and fight Saren and his men to the death even, but as the bickering continued on, the more Shepard realized there was a sound logic in Kaidan’s words. He turned to face his friend. “Ignore your damn sense of honor and duty for a second and think. Do you think Ash would have wanted you to throw your life away like this?” Shepard knew Garrus remember her last words just as well as he did. _Make it count, Skipper._ “Don’t make her sacrifice be in vain by getting yourself killed just for revenge.”

Garrus just sat there for a moment, boiling in his rage, before he slammed his fist into the ground. “Damn it…” he growled as he looked into the vast blue eyes of Shepard. “Next time we see this bastard, he’s dead, Shepard, and I don’t care if it will kill me.”

Shepard gave his long-time friend a nod. “I know…” He then looked over at Kaidan. “Okay…. Kaidan, you’re going to hate me for what I’m about to say, but if we’re going to get out of here, we’re going to need a distraction you’re not going to like.”

At first, the professor didn’t get what Shepard meant, but as soon as he noticed what the treasure hunter had in his hands. “But…!” A moment later, he let the breath go, full of grief and defeat. “Just… try not to bring this place down.”

“My patience is growing thin, Shepard.” Saren called out. “You may have a defensible position, but that won’t mean a thing if my men just swarm you. Like I said, my employer would prefer the good professor alive, but he is expendable. I’ll give you five minutes.”

Shepard pulled out the rest of the grenades and laid them out before them. “Alright, you two start lobbing out the flash-bangs. Then, we’ll make a wall of smoke to cover us on our dash to the exit.” He then leaned his head up and shouted.

The other two men gave a sign the each understood what to do. They each grabbed a few of the different grenades, securing the ones they could not hold to their belts. Garrus started off by lobbing a flash-bang, before Kaidan and Shepard followed up with smoke grenades. By the time the two had reached for another smoke grenade, Garrus lobbed over the first frag grenade.

“I think if we’re going to escape, we should start running now.” Garrus shouted as he got to his feet in a low, crouched position.

Shepard agreed with his friend, and, after he lobbed over a frag grenade of his own as Kaidan tossed over yet another smoke grenade, he got to his feet just as Garrus had and began to lead the charge towards the exit, with the other two men right behind him. As the three ran, they threw more grenades behind them, giving them cover while they were out in the exposed open, bullets whizzing by them, but none hitting their mark.

After the three had reached the archway, they dashed down the hall and soon reached yet another chamber and another downward spiral case. Shepard turned to Garrus and Kaidan. “Hurry up and head down – I’ve got a few more charges left, and I’m going to make sure they don’t come following.”

“Hurry, Shepard.” Garrus stood at the top of the stairs, while Kaidan was just a few steps below him.

 Shepard pulled out his bag again and pulled out the four C-4 charges, as he heard shouts nearing the far-end of the passage way he had just crossed. He set two on each side of the wall, armed them, and then dashed towards the case. “Get running, you two!”

“Shepard!” Kaidan suddenly shouted out in alarm. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?! You could bring the whole place down!”

The warning of the professor was ignored, though. Gunfire began to rain from the passageway leading back towards the central archive just as Shepard was a full turn down the spiral steps. He lifted the cap if the detonator and pressed it. The explosion shook the ground violently and Shepard, as well as his companions, nearly fell off and down the deep pit, but were able to keep their footing during the blast. The room above the passageway down remained relatively intact, though.

“Think they’re dead?” Garrus asked after there was a brief moment, his gun firmly gripped in his hand.

“Well, if they’re not… they’re probably really pissed right now.” Shepard laughed partly due to the adrenaline running through him, but mostly for the mild satisfaction of screwing over Saren for the moment since he couldn’t kill him. “Either way, I don’t think it’ll be best to wait around and find out.”

Shepard looked over at Kaidan, who had protested the use of the C4. He knew the professor was going to be angry, but the look in the other man’s brow eyes… it was a kind of rage that Shepard couldn’t describe. He had opened his mouth to say something, but Kaidan quickly regained his footing, pinched the upper bridge of his nose, and started walking down the stairwell in silence. Shepard and Garrus were right behind the other man. As the three men made their way down, the room above them and the stairwell they were in became dimmer and dimmer, until there was only a faint glow coming from the sections where the light emitted, though that was still enough to illuminate the way. This staircase was much shorter than the first one they had descended, and when they reached the bottom of the case and left it, they found themselves in a chamber ravaged and half-claimed by the water - more than half of it had collapsed to reveal a cavern full of seawater. There was the faint glow of light emanating from in one of the far corners of the cave – light reflected from the outside, so at least this route wasn’t a death-trap, though, by the watermarks on the walls, if they would have been here when the tide was in, it _would_ have been almost certain death.

As they made their way down towards the water, Kaidan spoke in a hushed tone, still full of anger. “So… what now?”

“Saren’s a hothead.He’s probably trying to get through the rubble to get to us, so we’ve got a decent amount of time before he’ll try to leave.” Shepard replied. “He’s also brash and predictable; he probably landed near the same shore we came on and just marched his way up, taking out anyone who got in his way, leaving maybe one or two people behind to look over the boats.” He looked over at the spot where the glow of moonlight shone in the water. “We swim through the, steal one of their boats while disabling the others, and the second we get back to Athens, we get the hell out of here. Kaidan, I’ll find someplace for you to lay low…”

“Yeah… that’s not happening.” Kaidan cut Shepard off. “That bastard has Liara… I’m going to find some way to rescue her.”

“And how do you plan on doing that, professor?” Garrus said as he crossed his arms at Kaidan. “Saren is a one hell of an infamous mercenary, and one of the lowest pieces of scum alive – I don’t care if you have had military training, you still wouldn’t get  with a thousand feet of him before getting a bullet in your head.”

“You’ll come with us then.” Shepard said. “I’m gonna find Dr. T’Soni.”  He waited in silence for the angry professor to respond, but no words came out of his mouth, only a deep piercing stare from his rich brown eyes.

Garrus’ steely blue eyes were boiling over with anger, as Shepard just stood there waiting for the response that wasn’t coming. Finally, he had enough and he rushed up to his friend. “Shepard, this isn’t the time to play Mr. Knight-in-Shining-Armor. We don’t even know Dr. T’Soni is alive, but we do know what Saren is capable of.”

“She’s alive, I know it.” Shepard was never surer of anything in his life. “He didn’t just want the journal, but he also wanted Kaidan alive. Whoever hired Saren needs them for something.”

“Even if she is, it’s not our problem.” Garrus shot back. “We were hired to get a medallion. Well, shit happened and someone else probably has it now, but that doesn’t mean we go on a rescue mission for a kidnapped archaeologist!”

Shepard had made up his mind though, and no matter what his friend would do or say now was going to change that. With the most serious look he had ever had, he looked the man he had known for so long straight into the eyes. “I’m going to rescue her. You can come with, or not.”

The other man  stared right into Shepard’s eyes for what seemed like hours. When they finally broke away, Shepard’s long-time friend grunted out “Fine. I’m coming with you, just to make sure you don’t get yourself killed.”

That brought a smile of relief to Shepard’s face. “Glad you are, Garrus. It just wouldn’t be right to put a bullet in that bastard’s skull without you there.”

“Damn right it wouldn’t be.” The corner of Garrus’ mouth curved up just a bit for Shepard.

“Now, Garrus…” Shepard’s dropped the seriousness in his voice because he knew he was about to bring up a very sensitive subject that he almost regretted that he had to. “…I need you to bear with me here...”

 “I have a feeling this is going to hate this.” The dread Garrus was apparently feeling was heavy in his words.

“Well, the only way I can think of tracking down Saren while hiding out is…” Shepard knew how Garrus was going to react, as soon as he said the city’s name. “…Moscow.”

“No, Shepard.”

The response was instant and dead serious, but also so full of pain and regret. Deep down, though, Shepard knew his long-time friend would come around.

**  
**


	5. Getting Help

Things had only become tenser between the three since leaving the island in Greece. Though Kaidan had apparently decided that staying with Shepard was probably a good idea since a deranged mercenary was after him, he had said maybe five words since leaving the island, and shot more than a few enraged looks at the man who had damaged the ancient structure to block their pursuers. That was something Shepard thought he could handle, though; Kaidan Alenko wasn’t the first person he had pissed off in his life, and sure as hell wouldn’t be the last, but for some reason, the professor’s anger at him was really picking away at the back of his mind. The professor had spent the majority of the boat ride in the inner cabin with just the faint glow of the water and the green slates to keep him company. More than once Shepard was ready to tell the professor off, to tell the other man that he had no choice but to collapse in a section of the wall to block their pursuers to save their lives, but every time he had sat in front of the other man, only an apology came out, which was met by dirty looks and deaf ears.

If that wasn’t enough to weigh Shepard down, on the way back to Athens he and Garrus got into a fight about their next destination. Shepard completely understood the reasons why Garrus didn’t want to go to Moscow, and at the same, Shepard knew that Garrus knew going to Moscow was probably their best chance at tracking down both Saren and Dr. T’Soni. That didn’t stop them from blowing up then refusing to speak with one another until they absolutely had to. 

The constant tension between the three men had made the past 34 hours uncomfortable.  There had been a small squabble between Kaidan and Garrus about trying to going back to Kaidan’s hotel to pick up his belongings, and  another fight when the professor had tried to use his credit cards to buy some new clothes after Garrus refusing to let him go. It was the same reason that Garrus contacted a few of his old “friends” and secured them on a private cargo plane with forged documents (in addition, it would have been hard to transport the still-glowing water and the green slates Kaidan had secured from the temple otherwise). Saren would be right on their trail if they did, as he had high-powered contacts in nearly every country. The worst part of the time since they had left the temple, for Shepard at least, was the quiet of the majority of 6 hour flight – it was spent in complete silence with the occasional look of contempt shot at Shepard from each of the other two. Near the end, Garrus did ask Shepard if their guns were still secured. It was a small thing, but Shepard knew it was a sign that his friend was slowly getting over their small fight ,  now that they were Moscow, things might be different, might get better with both Garrus and Kaidan.

Garrus had gone to procure a car to get them into the city, leaving Shepard and Kaidan waiting in the hangar as the plane was unloading.  As Shepard was sitting on a crate, Kaidan walked up, arms crossed. “So… what’s here in Moscow?” The professor’s tone was harsh, but, at least it wasn’t more silence. Shepard was really getting tired of that.

“A really talented hacker lives here. Her name’s Tali.” Shepard replied as he slid off the crate. “With any luck, she’ll be able to get us a few answers, like who hired Saren, where has he gone, and where they took Dr. T’Soni.”

“So… more illegal stuff, then?” Kaidan shook his head and took a step back from Shepard. “Really, if I would have even remotely known that Liara hiring you would have led to all this, I would…”

“…be Saren’s hostage with absolutely no one to help you.” Shepard’s words came off a little sharper than he intended, but it caused the harsh look on the professor’s face to soften slightly as he thought about what Shepard had said. “Listen. I know you don’t exactly like the way I do a lot of things, Kaidan, but know this. I want to get Dr. T’Soni back safe, and if that means breaking a few laws, I don’t care.”

“Is this really about saving Liara, or about you getting Saren?”

Though there was plenty of accusation in Kaidan’s words, there was also something that seemed like a touch of concern.  That didn’t take the sting out of them, though. It was hard for Shepard to admit, but he didn’t know the true reason why he wanted to track down Saren. Sure he wanted his revenge against the bastard for what he had done, but at the same time, Shepard was worried about the naïve doctor who had hired him, and gotten herself pulled into a world she was in no-way ready for.

“Does it really matter in the end, Kaidan?” He finally replied, after thinking for a moment.

The other man looked right into Shepard’s eyes. “Yeah, it kind of does.”

Before Shepard could respond to that, though, someone else cut in. “Obviously this is about getting that bastard Saren.” Garrus walked up to the other two men, a pair of keys in his hands. “Go ahead and be useful for a second professor and go and grab all our things. I don’t want to linger in this city any longer than I have to.”

Shepard watched as Kaidan just looked at him for a few more moments, as if he was waiting for Shepard to say something. But, when nothing came out of the treasure hunter’s mouth, the other man’s thick black brows scrunched in a disappointed look before he made his way over to where he had the few things. As soon as the professor was out of earshot, he turned to his friend. “You could have been a little nicer…”

“Nice isn’t in the cards as long as we’re here.” Garrus replied with a bit of a sigh. To most anyone else, Garrus seemed the same, but Shepard knew him. Ever since they had landed in Moscow, the anger and reluctance that had taken residence behind the steely blue eyes of the other man had changed more into a look of reluctance and sorrow.

Shepard walked up to his friend. He wanted to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but he knew that would have just gotten a look of contempt out of Garrus. Instead, he just looked him in the eyes. “It won’t take long. You just have to wait in the car and I’ll talk with her. You know it shouldn’t take  her long to track down that bastard.”

To Shepard’s surprise, Garrus shook his head. “I’m not going to hide away like a chicken.” He then forced a slight grin “I may have to dodge a punch or two, though.”

“I thought you would have been more worried about her shotgun.” Shepard said with a laugh, glad that Garrus wasn’t mad; or at least as mad; at him anymore.

“Oh, I’ll just use you as a human shield if she brings that thing out.” A bit of the usual confident hum to Garrus’ voice had returned now.

Kaidan soon came back with their few belongings; mostly the things they had taken to the temple, as well as a the few things Shepard and Garrus had in their hotel; and the group made their way to the compact car that Garrus procured and set off to Tali’s. They had arrived late in the evening, after all the heavy traffic had subsided but before the city had fully crawled into bed, so the drive from the airport they had landed at to the inner parts of the city didn’t take relatively too long. They found themselves in an area packed with apartments. After a few twist and turns through the maze of buildings, Garrus finally parked the car on the side of the street and both Shepard and Kaidan followed him as he lead the way to one of the buildings. As they reached the door, Shepard noticed that Garrus hesitated for just a second before he typed in the access code to enter.

After three flights of stairs and a few doors down the hallway, they stopped in front of a door. Garrus went to go knock, but stopped himself and turned to Shepard. “Hey… maybe it might be best if you knock. You know… shotgun and all…”

“Wait… what shotgun?!” Kaidan asked in confusion.

As Garrus moved out of the way and leaned against the wall a bit away from the door, he looked at the confused man. “Don’t worry, professor… if she shoots anyone, it’ll only be me.”

“Why?” Garrus’ words apparently brought no comfort to the professor.

“Because they used to date.” Shepard answered Kaidan’s question as he began to knock on the door. “And it didn’t exactly end on great terms.”

Before anyone could say anything else, sounds of movement from within the apartment were heard faintly through the door, quickly followed by the sounds of chains and deadbolts being undone. When the door opened, Shepard was face-to-face with a young woman who looked 20-tops, with long wavy black hair and fair skin. A bright smile crossed her delicate face and her violet eyes sparkled with joy. “SHEPARD!” She shouted with a noticeably light accent as she flung the door open and leap into his arms and burying her head into his chest.

He returned the young woman’s embrace. “It’s been a long time, Tali… too long.” It was obvious that she hadn’t noticed Garrus standing not six feet away.

“What are you doing here?” She asked as she pulled away. “Don’t tell me. You need me to make you something to bypass the security of a vault again?”

That brought a laugh out of Shepard. “No, something a lot easier than that. I need you to track someone for us.”

“Us?” She asked as a look of worry crossed her face. She looked over Shepard’s shoulder and that worry subsided. “Who’s your friend?”

“Professor Kaidan Alenko.” The man behind Shepard replied. “I’m… well… Shepard is helping me with something.”

“Ah… so you’re the client.” She let out a sigh of relief. “For a second, I thought…”

“Hey, Tali.” There was a smooth, casual tone to Garrus’ voice as he leaned against the wall.

A look of anger flashed across her face as she spun around to face the other man. “Garrus, вы сын на прошлой неделе! В прошлом месяце вы здесь?”

“Language, Tali…language.” Garrus purred as he stood up straight, his hands up in there air. “Listen, I’m here only as long as it’ll take for Shepard to get what he needs, then I’ll be gone again.”

The young Russian woman went to take a swing at the man she once dated, but Shepard suddenly walked in between her and Garrus. “Listen, Tali, I know you’re angry right now, and I honestly didn’t want to upset you, but I didn’t have a choice to bring him here and I couldn’t exactly warn you about him coming here either.”

She looked Shepard in the face, now that anger directed him. “And why not?”

He looked her right in the eyes. “It’s Saren, Tali. He’s kidnapped someone already, and he’s after us. Well, more specifically Professor Alenko, and a journal he has, and you know he would have found some way to track us down if we would have tried to contact you while we were in Greece.”

As soon as he had said the name of the mercenary, all the rage in Tali disappeared and a look of concern and sorrow replaced it. She stood there silent for a moment, before she turned and started to go back inside her apartment. “Come on in… even you, Garrus.”

It had been almost two years since Shepard had been inside Tali’s place – when it was still Tali’s and Garrus’ – and nothing had changed, really. The furniture was rather simple and minimalistic, with a few pictures of Tali and her large extended family framed on the walls. The only thing different were the missing pictures of her and Garrus, probably long thrown-out.

Tali pointed to the couch. “Garrus, you and the professor can wait out here. I had just put some coffee on, so help yourselves. Garrus, I still keep the cups in the same spot.” She then looked at Shepard. “You can fill me in about what’s going on while I start the search for that bastard.”

Shepard nodded as he followed her into one of the rooms in the back. As he walked into the ice-cold room, he had noticed the room where Tali had her computers set up had changed greatly since he had been there; an entire wall now was nothing but massive monitors, there were now multiple racks of towers set up as a processing farm, with more boxes and wires and other techno-doodads that he had no clue what they did. All the tech made the place a tight fit for the well-built man and the petite young woman. As she started closing a few of the things she had been finished running,as well as checking on the status of a few that currently were, Shepard filled her in on everything from the moment where Dr. T’Soni had contacted him two weeks ago with job all the way up to Saren’s sudden ambush and the explosive escape from the temple of the lost Prothean civilization, leaving out nothing; including the name of the café they met, the two hotels the two parties stayed at, everywhere he and Garrus had gone, or the death of his friend Jenkins. Well, that wasn’t entirely true; the only thing he omitted was the damn-near insufferable mood of the past day and a half. Though her eyes were focused on the screens, Shepard knew Tali had been listening.

Once everything had been explained to her, she turned away from the monitor to look at Shepard with a confused look on her face. “Okay… so what do you think I can do?”

“Saren sucks at keeping a clean paper trail. Then again, with so many contacts in so many governments across the world, he feels like he doesn’t need too.” Shepard replied. “I know he has more than one Swiss bank account, and he has more than one private plane. That, and a massive list of shell companies that are usually named after something from Ancient Rome…”

Though he had answered her questions, those answers only intensified the look of confusion on Tali’s face. “How do you know how Saren operates?”

It took Shepard a moment to realize that Garrus might not have told her everything about Shepard’s past. “Long story short, about 10 years ago I was in a PMC. We were called the Spectres,  and Saren was one of the founding members. That’s actually where our mutual hatred of one another started… especially once I found out that Saren was planning to overthrow the others in-charge and take over things for himself. That’s another story all together, though. Point is everyone in the company knew that the Saren never covered his trail; he cleaned up the area to make sure no one could trace things back to him, but he always got the best results, so no one ever threw him out.”

“Why work for a company that allowed that then?!” The young woman was slightly appalled by that confession from Shepard.

A look of shame crossed his face for only a moment, but he soon brushed it off. “I know how it might seem, but besides a few bad seeds like Saren, the Spectres actually did do a lot of good – saved more lives than you could have imagined, and that’s all I had wanted to do back then.”

There was now an inquisitive look on her face. “What happened? What changed?”

This wasn’t something Shepard wanted to talk about right now, like every time he had bumped into Saren over the years, just the thoughts of his days in the Spectres brought back too many bad memories. “Right now isn’t the best time to talk about the past. There’s a woman whose life is in the hands of a madman.”

Tali just nodded, slightly embarrassed before she turned back to her computer. “Sorry… you’re right. I guess I’ll start searches for anything linked to Saren Arterius. Companies, properties, bank accounts, then known shell companies with things relating to Rome.” She started opening up a few programs and typing in some coding. “Also, the transit security system of Athens – ever since the Olympics there in ’04 they’ve had a vast camera system – from the area around hotel where Dr. T’Soni was staying at. Their security hasn’t been up-to-date since the Greek financial crisis, so it’ll be easy to hack, and possibly use as a way to track what general direction they took her. If a good lead comes from it, I’ll go from there.”

“Thanks, Tali.” Shepard leaned down and gave her a slight hug. “I know I’m asking a lot from you,tracking Saren’s movements and bringing Garrus here…”

The young woman paused from her work for just a second and shook her head. “I won’t lie… seeing Garrus after 8 months… it stings, but I understand why you did it.” As she returned her focus back to her computer, she sort of nudged Shepard off of her. “I don’t know how long this will take. I have some fresh piroshky I just put away so you can help yourselves. I’ll let you know when I find anything significant.”

Shepard stood up and made his way back to the living room and told Kaidan and Garrus what Tali was doing and about the food. The next few hours were relatively quiet, though, unlike their flight into Moscow, there was no tension between the them – not even between Kaidan and Garrus, who had seemed to be at each other’s throats ever since the docks. For a while, Kaidan had disappeared - most likely he had some things he had wanted to tell Tali about Dr. T’Soni – but he came back after about 30 minutes. Now though, Garrus was sitting in on the couch - reading a magazine written entirely in Cyrillic – and Shepard was standing in the kitchen, eating one of the beef, onion, and mushroom-stuffed piroshkies that Tali had offered. Just then, Kaidan walked up towards him.

“Hey… Shepard…” The professor was no longer visibly upset like he was at the airport. In fact, the look on his face was much softer now. “I… I just wanna say I’m sorry.”

Though Shepard knew in the back of his a list of things Kaidan should be apologizing for, he just shook his head. “You don’t need to apologize to me, Kaidan – this isn’t a world you should have ever been involved in and me dragging you around, putting you at risk…”

Kaidan raised a hand and let out a bit of a laugh. “As much as I appreciate your concern for my moral well-being, Shepard,I’m a big boy and I can make my own decisions.If I wanted to leave, I would have left long ago.” He took a deep breath and sighed before his rich brown eyes met Shepard’s brilliant blue ones. “I… I really do need to apologize to you. Everything you’ve done since that crazy bastard Saren showed up has been to protect us – and all I did was take out my frustration and anger about everything on you. It… it wasn’t right of me, and I’m really sorry.”

As he crossed his arms, Shepard arched an eyebrow. “What did Tali tell you?”

A nervous grin came across Kaidan’s face. “Yeah… I guess it’s kind of obvious she told me a few things, you know, right after she tore into me for saying a few not nice things about you when I first went in there. She kind of mentioned how you saved her life from one of Saren’s thugs a few years back. I gotta say… it’s crazy on how long and bad of a history you and this bastard really do.” He then shook his head. “I’m sorry… I’m getting off-subject. Anyways, she also told me how concerned you seemed about this situation, and how you sincerely want to help. And… just the way I treated you… it wasn’t right. I mean, my migraine didn’t help my mood, but…”

Shepard shot up his hand. “Wait… migraine?” He then remembered back to how during the escape how Kaidan had seemed to have been rubbing his head a lot afterwards, and that the cabin in the boat they had stolen from Saren had been dark and relatively quiet. “You know, you could have told me.”

Kaidan gave a nod. “Yeah… I know… but I was kind of pissed off and I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. Hell… I don’t think I’ve been thinking straight since… well, since I met you.” An oddly amused smile came across his face. “Then again, things change so quickly around you… it’s a little hard to keep up sometimes.”

“I do like to keep everybody on their toes.” Shepard admitted, with a laugh that quickly spread to the other man, lasting for a good while before it eventually tapered out. The two stood quiet there for a moment afterwards before Shepard spoke again. “So, does that mean things are good between us?That you’re no longer pissed at me?”

“I wish it was as easy as that.” Kaidan looked away. “I mean… I really do appreciate what you’re doing for me, though a part of me still can’t get over you destroying part of that site and the way you seem so bent on revenge…” he then slowly turned his head back towards Shepard and their eyes met again. “but, if it’ll still count… I’m not as pissed.”

Shepard was relieved by those last words. A smile crossed his face as he uncrossed his arms. “Hey, I’ll take what I can get, just as long as you trust me.”

The other man gave a slight nod. “Well… I have been so far. I mean, hell, I followed you to Russia without asking why until we got here. So, as long as you don’t ask me to do something I can’t do, I think I can do that.”

Shepard was about to say how much that meant to him to hear that from Kaidan, but suddenly, an ecstatic Tali rushed into the room with an iPad in-hand. “Я сделал это! Я нашел их! I found them! I found Saren and Dr. T’Soni!”

The three men swiftly rushed the young Russian woman. Kaidan was the first to speak. “Where is she? Where’s Liara?”

“Monaco.” Tali pulled up a map. “It looks like she’s being held at the Monte Carlo Casino.”

“A casino?” Garrus arched one of his eyebrows. “That’s not exactly Saren’s style.He’s more of a dark warehouse on the edge of town kind of guy.”

“I think it’s because who employed him.” She flipped through a few screens before a company profile appeared. “Synthetic Insights – they’re one of the world’s leading researchers in artificial intelligence and quantum computing.”

“What would a technology company want with our research?” Kaidan asked, baffled at what he just heard.

Tali shook her head. “I have no clue, but if could get into their central server…”

“You mean you didn’t get into it?” There was shock in Garrus’ voice.

“I tried to…” There was a tone of defeat in the young woman’s voice. “But the firewall of the system was too much… it fried half of my setup… and I think they could have pinged me. If they did… they’ll find out I was digging around their systems pretty soon – even with all my security measures. Я не могу поверить мне было так спиртного ... Я на прошлой неделе прошли еще три спутника.”

Garrus’ eyes opened wide. “Then we need to get you out of here, Tali.”

The young woman shot her ex an irritated look. “I already called my cousins… they’ll be here in about 20 minutes to start loading all my stuff up and taking it to my aunt’s.” Her face softened a bit then. “So, we might want to hurry up and get on the road before they get here and see you and beat you up.”

“If you think you’re coming to Monaco with us, think again” Garrus planted his foot down with his words. “You said Saren was there too, so there’s no way I’m going to let you go.”

“You’re not the boss of me, Garrus.” The young woman shot back. “And you’re going to need me if you want to rescue Dr. T’Soni and get any kind of answers on what’s going on.Before I had to pull out of the system, I found some interesting images.” Her hands flipped through a few more screens, finally stopping on images that looked oddly similar to the sketches in Liara’s journal, but noticeably different. “There’s an access port into Synthetic Insights’ main servers not too far from the Casino, and I think Liara is being held at the Hôtel de Paris…”

Shepard noticed the way Tali was hesitating. “I feel a “but” coming on.”

She nodded. “…but its gaining access to them that’s going to be the problem. The hotel room won’t be a problem – I can easily hack into the hotel’s systems and make a duplicate keycard and I can mess with the systems to cause a distraction, but seeing as Dr. T’Soni is likely guarded by Saren’s men…”

“Saving her is going to have to be left up to me and Garrus.” Shepard replied.

She shook her head. “Actually, I’m afraid I’m going to need Garrus for something else.” She looked like she was going to say one thing for a moment, but no words came out.

Going in alone was something Shepard had done before in other situations, and something he knew he could do again. He gave her a nod. “Alright,I’m going in solo.”

Tali pulled up something else up on the tablet in her hand – that of a middle-age woman with sharp, dark features. “But, before we save the doctor, I need the cardkey to access the server. It’s held by a woman named Nassana Dantius,the director of Synthetic Insights’ Monaco branch. She’s an obsessive high-stakes gambler and is at the Casino every night.”

Before she went on, Shepard understood exactly what she was getting at. “So you need me to get her to gamble away her keycard?”

Tali shook her head. “She isn’t that stupid, Shepard. It’s not like she wears the card 24/7… but…” a sly grin came across her face “you don’t have to have her bet it , you need to get her to invite you to her room at the hotel , which is in the same wing as the doctor is being held, but on a lower floor, and steal it.”

“So, woo my way into her panties, let her bring me up to her room, knock her out and steal the cardkey?” Shepard asked rhetorically. “Sounds simple.”

“I wish it was…” Tali said as she shook her head. “Unfortunately, Nassana is incredibly paranoid.You’re going to have to find a way to get her to want you. Thankfully, we have a few things playing in our favor. First off, she’ having some family issues;one of her sisters is trying to extort her, and Nassana she has a history ofsnuffing out her problems by manipulating men. Also, she has a particular type that she’s drawn to that I can easily turn you into.Attractive, charismatic, rich, powerful businessmen, with shady dealings.”

Shepard arched one of his eyebrows. “This means I’m going to have to wear a suit, doesn’t it?”

That got a laugh out of the young Russian woman. “A tuxedo would probably be better – she likes her men to flaunt their wealth and to have some class.”

“Great…” Shepard was not even close to being what someone would consider “high class”. In fact, he was probably the furthest from classiest person ever sometimes.

“Um… I know you said we don’t have a lot of time… and, not to get off of topic here…” Kaidan suddenly interrupted. “…but… um… how did you find out,well, actually all of this, really, in just a few hours?”

Shepard was distracted for a moment from the dread of what he was about to have to do and let out a laugh as he turned his head at Kaidan. “I told you she was damn good. Now do you believe me?”

The professor was speechless as he just nodded his head in both shock and awe, while Tali let loose a few giggles.

“Okay, back on subject…” Garrus’ voice cut through the laughter. “You realize your plan has a major flaw, right?”

Tali gave a nod of her head. “Yes… that’s why Shepard is going to have a business partner.” She turned her attention back to Shepard, but was also looking at Kaidan as well. “Professor Alenko, I know it’s going to be asking a lot for you

 

Shepard wanted to keep Kaidan out-of-sight; the professor was wanted by Saren, and putting him into a situation like this wasn’t something he was willing to let happen.

“Alright.”

He couldn’t believe the words he just heard. Shepard shot his head around to look at Kaidan. “Hey… I’m sure we can find another way. There’s a chance Saren’s men could be all over the hotel and possibly the casino.If they know what you look like...”

Kaidan cut Shepard off. “Hey, they couldknow what you look like too, and everything would be ruined just the same.” A fire of determination lit in his eyes. “I want to help. I’m going to help.”

“So the squeaky-clean professor wants to be an active player in our dangerous little game.” There was an amused hum to Garrus’ voice.

Kaidan crossed his arms at Garrus. “Did you forget I demanded to go along on the trip to the island?”

“That game ended the second Saren showed up, and you’re lucky to be alive.” Garrus shot back. “So, even with your old military training, you’re still getting into something over your head.”

“Garrus, shut up!” Tali shouted at Garrus, giving him a dirty look. She then turned her attention back to Shepard and Kaidan. “Alright… so you’re both okay with it?”

“Of course,” The response shot out of Kaidan like a flash of lightning.

Shepard wasn’t entirely, but he had told the professor to trust him that he would’ntmake Kaidan do anything he didn’t want to do. He just never imagined that Kaidan didn’t want to sit on the sidelines. “Yeah… sounds good.”

 Good.” She timed-out the screen and started to make her way to the door. “Like I said, we need to hurry up and get going – we need to swing by a friend of mine to get us some forged ids and passports before I book our flight.”

“I still don’t think you should come, Tali.” Garrus voiced his opinion, yet again.

The young woman opened the closet near the entrance to the closet and pulled out a military-grade shotgun, along with a black bag. “Я вырос Garrus - я может позаботиться о себе.”

“Just because you have a shotgun…” Garrus started, but when the gun moved effortlessly from being held to being cocked and ready to unload its shell into his head in the blink of an eye he stopped talking. “…okay… okay… I’ll shut up now.”

He knew he shouldn’t of have found the sight of Tali pointing her weapon at Garrus funny, but Shepard did, but, at the same time, he wouldn’t deny that he didn’t have the same thought that Garrus had – that this could be too dangerous for her. Unlike him, Garrus, and Kaidan, she had no military experience, and he didn’t know what she could do beyond hacking. “Alright, you two… behave.” His voice was practically a laugh, hiding the concern he had. “Tali’s right though. We need to get going to Tali’s friend’s place.”

Garrus and Kaidan walked past him and the young woman, out into the hallway, towards the stairs.  As he walked towards the door, he stopped by the young woman and leaned in close. “You know, Tali…”

She didn’t let him finish. “I know you’re worried about me, but, don’t be. I told you, I needed Garrus for something.  He’ll be by my side the entire time. Things may have ended between me and him because he was never around;always off on another adventure in Fiji or Panama, but, still to this day, I’ve never felt as safe as I do as when he’s around me. I know he won’t let anything bad happen to me.”

Shepard gave her a nod and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Okay.” It was all he could think to say, all that he knew he could say. Tali was a strong-willed young woman and he knew he wasn’t going to change her mind. Plus, having a techno-genius of her caliber that close would probably come in handy. Now… the only thing Shepard had left to worry about was the impending mission – and the thought of acting to be _with_ Kaidan. This was going to be another long trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RD1: "Garrus, you son of a bitch! What the fuck are you doing here?"
> 
> RD2: "I did it! I found them!"
> 
> RD3: "I can't believe I was so sloppy... I should have fucking gone through 3 more satellites."
> 
> RD4: "I've grown up Garrus - I can take care of myself."


	6. Gamblin' Man

Sitting in the back seat of the limo, Shepard couldn’t stop fidgeting with the tie of his tuxedo. As nice as the white jacket and black pants and tie looked on him, he just didn’t feel right in it; he really was a jeans and Henley kind of guy through-and-through. The taser strapped to his back wasn’t helping much with his comfort either. Garrus seemed equally as uncomfortable in the charcoal grey suit he wore. Kaidan though, he seemed as if he fit right at home in the classic black tux that Tali had picked out for him. Thinking of Tali, he looked over at the young Russian woman - who looked stunning in her simple black cocktail dress – going over a few things last-minute on her customized smartphone.

“Okay, do you three all remember your covers?” Tali asked as she looked up from the device in her hand.

“I’m Solomon Gunn.” Shepard replied with a nod as a smile came across his face “I own Gunn Manufacturers - a microchip manufacturing facility in Southern California, pulling in a profit of about $60 million a year, mostly from government contracts in Central America. In reality, though, it’s all a front for my weapons smuggling operations. Kaidan here…”

“…Elias Kelham, Solomon’s business partner and lawyer. I make sure to keep everything looking legitimate in California and stonewall any government agency that gets too close.” Kaidan finished, though he didn’t seem as enthused about it as Shepard was.

“And I’m Natalie Zorah,” Tali then slipped into a very convincing American accent “Elias’ girlfriend,and model/actress.” She leaned in close and gave an air kiss to the side of Kaidan’s face.

Just then, all eyes turned to Garrus now, who was sitting by himself, arms crossed and face a little puffed, like that of an irritated 5-year old. A teasing smile came across Tali’s face. “And your cover is…?”

“I know it, okay?” Garrus’ words where short and sharp, before dropping low and muttering in a barely audible voice. “Why do you get a name that’s pretty much your own already?”

Shepard could clearly see Tali was enjoying seeing Garrus act like this. “And your cover _is_ …?” She repeated.

“…rad ver…” His response was a low, mostly inaudible murmur.

“What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you…” Tali was definitely enjoying seeing him squirm.

A groan finally erupted out of Garrus. “Conrad Verner…. Solomon’s assistant.” He then turned to look at Shepard. “Why the hell am I even going into the Casino, anyways? Shouldn’t me and Tali go ahead and prep to get the cardkey made?”

Shepard shook his head. “We don’t know how long it will take for to trick Nassana into bringing me up to her room and we don’t have any way to stay in touch – it’s just best if you and Tali keep a low profile in the Casino and keep an eye on us until I leave with her.”

“We’re getting close.” Tali said when she looked out the window and saw the lights of the Casino only a few blocks away.

After giving her a nod, Shepard turned his attention to the man on his left. Kaidan was sitting there, tapping his foot nervously. He went to put his hand on the other man’s shoulder, but stopped half-way. “You alright, Kaidan?” he asked instead.

Kaidan leaned forward and looked at Tali. “So… how sure are you that this is going to work, Tali? You know… Shepard has to do? I mean… how is she supposed to know what he really does”

“You would be surprised on the things people will believe in the news.” The young woman said as she tapped something on her phone again. “The past week, there have been reports of the US government being denied warrants to search a suspected weapon smuggling operations in California. I’ve just altered the news reports  coming through most European servers for the past 26 hours to throw around a few choice names- the ones I had crafted for you and Shepard. Also, add that they’re on a trip to Monaco, and it will really get people talking. And a woman like Nassana likes to keep up on all the news. ”

“So, that explains the… um… interesting careers for us.” Kaidan said as he nodded. “Okay, just wanted to make sure.”

Tali turned to look at Shepard. “I also found out something else that might come in handy;Nassana likes to be the one in control and she likes things she has to fight a little for. You need to get her to come to you and when she does eventually invite you to come with her, refuse her until she makes you an offer of some kind.”

 “Got it.” Shepard replied with a nod. “Anything else I should know?”

Tali shook her head. “I’m pretty sure I’ve covered our bases. I’ve had money wired ahead to the casino in Mr. Gunn’s name and tapped into the security systems of the casino and the hotel. Oh, and, obviously, it’s best that no matter what happens we stay in-character until you’ve secured the cardkey from Nassana’s room.”

“Okay, I think we all got that, but… um…” Kaidan began to speak up. “…will I regret it when I ask where you got the money from, Tali?”

The young Russian woman just gave a shrug. “Not really.It’s mine. I play a lot of online poker.”

“Aren’t you afraid of losing all your money, though on this? I mean… all this really doesn’t involve you…” The professor seemed genuinely concerned.

Unfortunately for him, that concern was lost on Tali. “Even if I do lose it all,which I doubt,I’ll make it all back, and more, in less than a day.”

While the professor just scratched his head, not getting exactly what she meant Shepard and Garrus, on the other hand, busted out laughing. “So the best hacker in the world scams online poker tournaments now?” Garrus said between a burst of laughter. “I think that’s a little bit of a waste of your skills, Tali.”

“Well, it’s not like I had a choice.” Her words were sharp and the back of the vehicle went quiet - everyone knew who exactly it directed at.

The silence was short-lived though, as the limo slowed to a stop at the Casino’s entrance, everyone began to make last minute preparations… except for Garrus. All the sudden, a bit of a teasing grin came across Shepard’s face as he looked over towards his friend. “You might wanna get _fully_ into character… Conrad.”

Without a word, Garrus pulled out and put on a pair of glasses, pushing them up the bridge of his nose with his middle finger. The silver frames looked completely out-of-place to Shepard;he knew how good Garrus’ vision was, and it caused him to let out a little laugh. The second the door to the limo opened, though, the laughter stopped. He wasn’t Shepard, the Treasure Hunter anymore.He was Solomon Gunn, Millionaire.

Right behind Shepard was Garrus, acting a little stiff, with Tali right on his tail. Shepard was expecting Kaidan to come out right after, but after a few moments of nothing, he leaned in to see the professor sitting in the same spot.

He leaned inside a bit. “You know, you don’t have to do this if you’re nervous… I’m sure there’s another way.”

Kaidan shook his head. “I’m not… no… it’s not because I’m nervous, it’s… well, it’s just that I wish there was something more I could do than help run interference. It’s like… I feel like you don’t trust me.”

“This has nothing to do with not trusting you, Kaidan, so don’t think you not being as involved in this plan isn’t because I doubt you.” Shepard replied. The professor had entrusted him with his safety for over 3 days now, but he was afraid to put Kaidan’s safety at any greater risk than it already was. 

Kaidan sighed. “I know… I guess it’s that I’m not a fan of waiting on the sidelines.” He finally began to get out of the car.

“So... you cool with everything?” Shepard asked as he looked at Kaidan, still half-in the car

The corner of the professor mouth curled up a bit into a smile. “Yeah… yeah, I think I am.”

Once had Shepard and Kaidan caught up to Garrus and Tali, who had walked on ahead without noticing the other two were still by the car, the four made their way inside the grand casino together, Tali slipping her arm inside of one of Kaidan’s as they made their way in. The first thing the group did was head over to pick up the cash that Tali had wired ahead for. When the person behind the counter pulled out a rather good-sized steel case full with stacks of hundreds worth $10,000 each, Shepard’s jaw almost dropped, yet he did the math in his head to figure out exactly how much she had actually had wired to the casino. His eyes did peered off to the side to how Kaidan was reacting, half-expecting the professor to actually have his jaw touching the floor, but Kaidan looked just the same as he did as he exited the car. Well, maybe his eyes were a little bulged out, but no more than Shepard’s. Garrus was the one who took both cases - after Shepard pulled out a hundred dollar bill to tip the young man behind the counter, with a flirty wink to boot – before they headed off again.

“So… where do you think we should start playing, Eli?” Shepard asked Kaidan as he patted him on the shoulder.

He was hoping the professor would know what to do next, and Kaidan didn’t disappoint. He turned to look at the young woman on his arm. “Well, this is Natalie’s first time out of the States… I say let her pick.” It was a better line than he would have probably come up with, Shepard admitted to himself.

To what may had looked tothe casual observer of playing with her phone since she had walked in, Tali had actually been going through security feeds, tracking Nassana’s movements. “I think we should try one of the Roulette tables.” she had slipped back into the American accent now that they were in the casino.

The four made their way through the casino to one of the Roulette rooms. Their target, the Synthetic Insights executive Nassana Dantius , was easy to spot in the crowd. Her rich, ebony skin starkly contrasted her shimmering blue dress that drew in all eyes. She was standing by what seemed to be one of the more expensive tables, with only 2 other people beside her – an elderly aristocratic woman and an Arabian Sheikh.

“You ready?” Shepard asked as he turned to look to Kaidan.

The professor nodded as he flashed Shepard a confident smile. “Yeah… I’ve got a good feeling… feeling lucky.”

As they neared the table, Shepard noticed that Nassana had looked over at him and Kaidan with eyes that lingered for a moment. Even though he had her attention, he remembered what Tali had said – the woman didn’t like men who were easy to get. Shepard took seat by the elderly woman, using her as a buffer between him and Nassana, while Kaidan took seat to the left of him.

Kaidan turned to look at Tali. “Hey… you’re the one who suggested roulette… so are you going to play?”

She was seating herself at one of the small tables for people who were not gambling. “I’d rather watch from here – You and Solomon enjoy your game. You two do have a lot to celebrate.”

Shepard threw an arm around Kaidan. “Exactly, Eli… we’ve got a lot to celebrate because of you.” He looked at the croupier. “$50,000 of chips each for me and my friend here.” Garrus had walked up behind him and opened the case, handing the cash to Shepard so he could give it to the croupier. As soon as young man gave a quick once-over on the stacks of bills, he collected up stacks of two different colored chips and slid one color – black with red and white details – in front of Shepard, and the other – blue with silver and gold – in front of Kaidan.

Shepard knew the basics of the game – the most basic kinds of inside and outside bets – but he really didn’t know or care about the chances and payoffs. To him, all you really needed was confidence, his gut instincts, and a little bit of luck. As betting opened, Shepard was the first to put his chips down. He didn’t win every time, but he was fairing much better than the old woman beside him or the Sheikh at the far end of the table, who seemed to barely break even the few times they did. Nassana herself was doing a bit better that Shepard, building to her stack of chips at a slightly higher rate than him. But, the biggest one who was winning the most, more often, was Kaidan. Shepard would have never guessed it, but the professor apparently knew how to play the game rather well – a very systematic approach that ensured that anything he lost, he soon made back the next time he won. Shepard kept finding himself staring, watching in a bit of awe the way Kaidan played.

“Damn, Eli… care to not make the rest of us not look so bad?” Shepard said with a laugh and he playfully punched the professor in the arm.

“Afraid that your friend is out-shining you?” Leaning over the table to look Shepard’s way was the woman’s attention he had wanted. Nassana’s voice was smooth and calculating. “I wouldn’t let that bother you, since I know I’ve been doing better than you tonight too.”

A confident grin came across his face. “You’ve gotten lucky.”

As she took a sip of her champagne, thin smile crossed her lips as she let out a curt laugh. “Oh, no, sir… I’m quite sure you’ve been the person staying afloat by luck alone.”

Now it was Shepard’s turn to laugh. “Last time I checked, going from 50k to 71k wasn’t just “staying afloat”, miss…”

“Dantius … Nassana Dantius.” She nearly struck the elderly woman in the face as she outstretched her hand towards Shepard.

He took the outstretched hand in his own. “Solomon Gunn.” With a sly smile he leaned in and kissed it before he turned to point to Kaidan. “This is my friend and associate, Elias Kelham.”

“Solomon Gunn?” She arched a brow, obviously intrigued by the mention of the name. “You know, that name sounds very familiar…”

Shepard sighed as he shook his head. “Well… the ATF had it in their heads I was running a weapons smuggling ring based on a piece of illegally acquired evidence. Thankfully, Eli here happens to be a really good friend and truly great business partner… plus one hell of a lawyer. We’re actually here to relax… dealing with the government always wears me out.”

“As it does I.” Nassana agreed. “You know… roulette is becoming a little boring… what do you think of the idea of yourself, your associate Eli, and I heading over to the bar for a drink?”

Shepard remembered what Tali had told him before they arrived, though he couldn’t help but think it was odd that she was inviting both him and Kaidan to the bar. “I don’t know… Eli here is on a roll, and I’ve been doing okay the past few games.”

Nassana’s thin smile curled up higher. “The casino doesn’t close for hours, and you can always come back to the table… just one drink, and, who knows… it might turn out not to be a waste of time.” She looked at the croupier as she slid her chips forward. “Cash me out.”

Shepard looked over at Kaidan. “So… what do you think, Eli? Care to share a drink with the woman?”

Kaidan looked at Shepard, and then turned his gaze to his chips. “Go ahead and cash me out too.” Shepard followed suit and quickly cashed out as well before he joined Nassana and Kaidan who were waiting for him.

The three were about to make their way off to the bar when Tali and Garrus walked up. Nassana turned to look at them with a bit of a look of disgust on her face. “I think your assistants can wait where they are… or maybe they could ask for an advance and have the chance to enjoy the tables in the room if you’re feeling generous.”

“I’m not an assistant… I’m his girlfriend.” Tali said as she pointed towards Kaidan. She looked genuinely pissed off from the way Nassana had spoken to her.

The ebony woman nodded as she looked at Tali, then Kaidan. “Right… Well, be a _good_ girlfriend and go play some games while the three of us go talk business.”

For a moment, it looked as if Tali was about to break her character and jump the other woman, but thankfully, all she did was just shoot Nassana a dirty look before taking a step back. “I’m sure Conrad will be great company until you get back, Elias.”

With a triumphant smirk, Nassana walked between Shepard and Kaidan and hooked each of her arms into one of theirs, leading the way to the bar, and when then they reached it, she flagged over a bartender. “Champagne for me.” She looked at Shepard and Kaidan. “…and for you two?”

“Whiskey” Both men responded at the same time. It caused the woman in-between them to let out an oddly amused laugh, which in turned caused Kaidan to shoot Shepard a confused look. Unfortunately, the treasure hunter-playing-millionaire had no clue what the woman found so funny and just gave him a shrug.

After the order was placed, Nassana’s full attention fell on Shepard. “I must admit, Mr. Gunn, you truly came to Monaco at the perfect time. So, before we move on to… _other_ matters… there is something I want to talk to you about – I wish to make a business deal with you.”

This wasn’t exactly the way Shepard had expected the conversation to start out, but he was use to things not going the way he planned them. “Well, I actually don’t handle the orders for our microchip…”

“Let’s just cut the bullshit, Mr. Gunn.” The woman’s words were sharp. “I don’t care about your microchips… I’m interested in your _other_ products and services.”

Shepard shot a few glances around - mostly for dramatic effect – before leaning in close to the woman. “This really isn’t the place for me to be talking about that.”

“Don’t worry, this Casino has very tight lips, rest assured.” Nassana replied just as the drinks she had ordered were placed before the three. She took a sip of her own drink before continuing on. “I have a sister who was kidnapped while she was doing humanitarian work in Africa. They want money or guns…”

“Wouldn’t the money be easier for you to get?” Kaidan spoke up.

“Yes, it would, Mr. Kelham, if I was intended on letting these men just get away with things.” Nassana gave a cold smile. “You’ve must have had a few bad shipments that you couldn’t just sell or ditch stored around somewhere…”

“And you want to buy them off of us.” Kaidan finished her thought.

“At a greatly reduced rate, of course.” She added. "I’ll have to purchase a few working ones as well, to keep the ruse going long enough to get my sister back… but, in the end, this will cost much less than giving into their demands.”

The corner of Shepard’s mouth twisted upwards. “You know… I’m sure there’s something we can work out.”

“Good.” The woman seemed very pleased as she leaned her head back and finished off her drink. “Let’s say we seal this deal then… back at my hotel room.” She hooked one of her fingers into the front of Shepard’s tux jacket and began to tug.

“You know… getting things like these does take time…” Shepard began to say, but was quickly stopped when Nassana raised a finger to his lips.

“I’m not taking “no” for an answer, Mr. Gunn.” There was a wickedly pleased smile on her face.

“Okay… I’ll just have Eli place the call then.” Shepard said as he slid off the barstool.

Nassana shook her head as her eyes made her way to Kaidan. “No… I think Mr. Kelham should join us.”

An uneasy feeling shot through Shepard. It was just supposed to be him who Nassana was to bring up to her room – Kaidan was to wait at a safe location out of harm’s way, not get more involved than he already was. Shepard was about to speak up when Kaidan held up his hand. “Um… Ms. Dantius, I have a girlfriend…”

That made her laugh. “Mr. Kelham, I can see that you are the shrewder businessman of the two of you, so let me put it this way – this is a deal that helps both of us out, and I want to seal the deal with some fun for the three of us. Now, if you can’t appreciate my offer, I’ll find someone else who will, because, unlike how I can easily go to any other weapons dealer for what I need, you cannot so easily find someone so willing to buy your junk.”

Tali was right; this woman liked to get her way. And now, Shepard knew that he and Kaidan were in a tough spot. Unless Kaidan went with them, Nassana was making it perfectly clear that she was going to ditch Shepard, but, at the same time, Shepard didn’t want to involve Kaidan anymore than he was. But they had come too far to back out now… but maybe there was another way? He had the taser and could take Nassana out right now with it, steal the key to her room and give him the cardkey… yet that would blow everyone’s cover and ruin the plan… though, possibly, Kaidan would still be safe. But, if they couldn’t rescue Dr. T’Soni, the professor would never forgive Shepard.

Shepard was just about to move to grab the dish when Kaidan spoke up. “… just as long as we keep this a one-time, strictly business thing.”

A pleased look came across Nassana’s face. “Of course, Mr. Kelham.”

Shepard looked at Kaidan, getting ready to tell him that he didn’t have to do this, that he would find another way, but when their eyes met, it was as if he could hear the professor’s eyes screaming – Please, just trust me. He remembered Kaidan’s words from earlier – how all he wanted was to be trusted to do stuff instead of being shuffled off to the side. It was right then that Shepard realized that if he wanted the professor to keep trusting him that he would have to start trusting him. He gave Kaidan a nod and a warm smile; probably not the kind of smile Solomon Gunn would give, but right now, he didn’t care;before turning to look back at Nassana. “Lead the way, Ms. Dantius.”

**  
**


	7. Saving the Doctor

As they made their way into the Nassana’s 4th floor suite, many things stood out about the room to Shepard; the dark colors of the room’s décor, the lavish expensive furniture and paintings in the foyer, and the two very large, brutish men standing in the inner corridor greeted who greeted Nassana, Kaidan and him.

To Shepard’s right, Kaidan spoke up. “Well… this place looks a lot more… lavish than the other suites.”

“Good eye, Mr. Kelham.” Nassana purred out as her hand caressed a vase. “My employers bought a stake in the hotel a few years back. My transfer here is only temporary, but that didn’t stop them from making sure my stay here was up to the level of comfort I’m used to.” She then turned to her two guards. “Step outside, boys. I wish to entertain my guests in private for the next few hours.” A thin smile crossed the woman’s lips as she watched them exit. As the door closed she returned her attention back to Shepard and Kaidan “I hope my men didn’t intimidate you, but I’m sure you understand a woman like me living alone – even in this city – must protect herself.”

“Don’t worry, Ms. Dantius,” Shepard replied as he watched the door close behind the two men, thinking of ways to take them out when the time came to meet with Garrus and Tali “…if I got intimidated every time someone had two very large men with them, I would still be selling handguns out of my old Ford Pinto in Oakland.”

She let out a curt laugh of feigned amusement before she turned and began to make her way to the door to her left. “Yes… how naïve of me to think two body guards would be enough to drive you away now. Well… my bedroom is this way, Mr. Gunn, Mr. Kelham… and _do_ make yourselves comfortable.” It was not a request, and as she walked through the door she began to unclasp her necklace, allowing it to fall to the floor, followed by other pieces of her jewelry.

Shepard looked to Kaidan. The professor seemed uncomfortable at the woman’s command for the two men to begin losing their clothes. He shook the other man’s shoulder in a friendly manner. “Oh, come on Eli, don’t be bashful around me… it’s not like we haven’t seen each other naked before.” It actually wasn’t that much of a lie; back in Greece, on the way to the island, he, Kaidan, and Garrus had changed into their wetsuits on-deck, but they each did change behind something that covered their lower halves to keep some decency. “Anyways, the sooner you lose the coat, the sooner we can get to the fun part of the evening.”

The nod Kaidan gave meant he understood that Shepard had meant that they wouldn’t be playing their roles for much longer. He began to carefully undo the buttons of his tux’s jacket and vest, removing the jacket and placing it on a nearby chair, though leaving the vest, before following the woman into the bedroom she had just entered.

Shepard let an amused grin out before he discarded his jacket and cummerbund, letting each fall to the floor. It was a relief for him to finally be rid of the articles of clothing as they made him feel restricted. He was undoing his tie as he entered the bedroom where the other two were waiting, closing the double doors behind him. 

Nassana was standing in the middle of the room, reaching back for the zipper of her dress, though not quite reaching it. She craned her neck over her shoulder in a seductive manner. “Would one of your boys care to help me?”

A smile came across Shepard’s face as he began to un-tuck his shirt from the back – the time for charades was finally. “That’s not exactly what I had in mind, Nassana” In a lightning-fast motion, he pulled the taser from the holster strapped to his back and pulled the trigger. The woman had no time to move or yell out before the two probes that shot out embedded themselves into her backside and a million volts of electricity shot into her. She let out a sharp but low cry of pain as her body stiffened up and fell to the ground, hard. When the gun finally stopped making the clicking sound, Nassana was still on the floor, barely moving.

“Jesus Christ, Shepard!” Kaidan exclaimed as he stood there with a look of horror on his face. “You just tazed her!”

“Yeah.” Shepard said it in the most matter-of-factly tone ever as he made his way over near the incapacitated woman, turned to the bed and began to remove the bedding to retrieve the sheet.

Kaidan took a few hesitant steps towards him. “You _tazed_ her!”

Shepard found it amusing how the professor was hung up on that. “It’s not like she was just going to give us the cardkey so I had to knock her out somehow. I know a lot of ways to take down someone without killing them – this was the least violent way.” He kneeled down and pulled out from a strap on his calf a knife and used it to begin cutting thick strips out of the fabric for a bit before he stopped and looked at Kaidan. “Um… care to help me tie her up? She’s not going to be out forever and we don’t want her getting her thugs while we’re looking for that card.”

“Speaking of those thugs… what are we going to do about them?” Kaidan asked. “I mean, it’s not like you can taze them both at the same time.”

“I also don’t have another probe cartridge.” Shepard admitted before a bit of a twisted smile came across his face. “But, don’t worry… I’ve got something planned, so don’t worry. Now… a bit of help here, please?”

Though he stood there for a moment, looking a bit dumbfounded, Kaidan did come over to assist Shepard in firmly restraining the woman with the strips of the fabric, before they dragged her off into a closet.

After Nassana was taken care of, Shepard began to look over the room. “Now… if I was a cardkey, where would I be…”

Kaidan began to walk towards one of the other doors in the room. “Suites like these, they tend to have a little desk in the living area for the businessman who brings his work along with him… my bet is that it’s probably around there.”

Shepard was right behind Kaidan as the professor lead the way into the next room. Unfortunately, all that was in there was only more lavish furniture, fine art and a slightly out-of-place flat screen TV. There was also another door that led to another room. Nassana had implied that the room had been refurnished especially for her, so the idea of the second bedroom having been converted into a private office wasn’t too far-fetch of an idea. Trying to open the door only to be met with a locked handled pretty much confirmed it. “Well, shit.”

Kaidan turned around and was about to make his way back to the bedroom. “Maybe she’ll have a key somewhere like in her nightstand or something?”

Shepard reached out a hand to stop the professor. “Hey, we don’t have the time to look for something else. I’ve got an idea.” He then turned to one of the tables in the room that had a very hefty-looking Grecian-inspired bust on it. Weighing it about in his hands for a moment before he was satisfied, he returned to the door and with a swift, heavy blow, brought the base of the statute down against the doorknob with a heavy thud, breaking a bit of the handle and the statue off in the process

“Shepard!” Kaidan shouted in a raspy hushed tone. “Those bodyguards…”

“…are probably thinking we’re knockin’ the headboards if they hear anything at all.” He replied as hit it again, this time busting the lock a bit off the door, but not breaking the lock open entirely again – that happened on the third and final strike. As the mangled knob fell to the floor, Shepard discarded the statue and, with a good bit of his weight threw his shoulder into the door to swing it wide open to reveal the private office. There were quite a few shelves filled with books and files, multiple chairs and tables, as well as a massive wooden desk in the center of it all.

“I’ll take one side of the desk, you take the other?” It was a bit of a rhetorical question from Kaidan, as he was already halfway towards the right side of the desk.

Shepard made his way to the desk as well and began going through the drawers on the left side. As he was sorting through the first drawer, something passed through his mind; a question, more specifically. “So, Kaidan… you seemed to be rather accustomed to big suites.”

The professor was about to start on his second draw now. “Well, I do a lot of traveling with Liara… and… well, she comes from money. I mean… I don’t like taking advantage of her hospitality, but she insists we get suites when we travel together.”

Not finding the cardkey in the first draw, Shepard moved onto the next, but a new question had come to his mind. “You and the doctor… you two are pretty close. So… are you two…?”

To Shepard’s surprise, Kaidan let out a laugh. “You think me and Liara…?”

“Well, you have been very insistent on rescuing her…” Shepard pointed out.

“Of course I have!” The other man sounded offended. “She saw something in my dissertation over ancient world languages and lobbied the board of the ISAW to hire me on.She’s given me a lot, and I owe her so much for that.”

For just a second, Shepard threw his hands up in the air defensively. “Hey… I didn’t mean to offend…”

Kaidan shook his head. “No… you didn’t… it’s just… well, I guess I can see how you might think that me and Liara might be… involved… but we’re not. I haven’t been with anyone in years, actually…” All the sudden, the professor stopped going through the draw, just kneeling by the desk, lost in thought. He then looked over at Shepard with a hesitant look on his face. “You know… I don’t know if this is really the best time to ask this… hell, I don’t even know if it’s appropriate… but…”

Somehow, Shepard knew exactly what the professor was going to ask. Maybe it might not have been the best time,with the wounds freshly opened by the reappearance of Saren,yet he answered it anyways. “No. Ash… she was like a sister to me.”

Apparently, the pain Shepard felt from the loss of his friend came through in his voice more than he thought it did because Kaidan suddenly stood up, shaking his head. “Hey… I’m sorry. I can’t even imagine what it would be to lose someone who was like family to a sick bastard like Saren.”

Now it was Shepard’s turn to shake his head. “Hey… don’t apologize, Kaidan. You really don’t know about my past, and since I did ask you a pretty personal question, it was only fair I answered yours.” There was an air of silence that filled the room for a moment before Shepard went back to searching. As he opened the final draw on his side, a smile came across his face. “Well, about time…” He pulled out the cardkey he had been searching for and stood up.

Kaidan let out a sigh of relief. “Now we just need to pass it off to Tali and then go rescue Liara… you know, as soon as we figure out how to get past those two bodyguards…”

A twisted smile came across Shepard’s face as he began to unbutton his shirt. “Oh, don’t worry – I’ve got a plan. Come over here.”

The professor made his way over where Shepard whispered his plan into the man’s ear. Kaidan pulled back, a dumbfounded look on his face. “That is the most childish, utterly ridiculous plan I’ve ever heard.”

“You got a better plan?” Shepard asked him.

He thought for a moment, but ultimately the professor shook his head. “Not really…”

Not wanting to waste any more time, he two immediately made their way out of the office to set up for Shepard’s plan.

Once everything was set, Shepard took off his shirt, undid his pants and brought them a little off his hips before he suddenly bolted to the front door and swung it open. “Something’s wrong with Nassana! She suddenly started convulsing!” He shouted in panic at the two men standing outside.

The two men rushed past Shepard and towards the bedroom to see their employer. As they went inside, they found her on the bed, tied up, followed by the sound of Shepard slamming the door behind them shut as Kaidan pushed a very heavy table in front of the door.

After a heavy pant, Kaidan suddenly started to laugh. “I… I can’t believe that worked.”

“I can’t either.” Shepard gasped as he joined in on the laughter. “But… It’s probably not going to last long. Let’s get the hell out of here.” He grabbed the shirt he had discarded and began to lead the way out of Nassana’s suite and towards the staircase.

They came across Garrus and Tali near the bottom of the stairwell, the young Russian woman tapping her heels impatiently until she saw Shepard and Kaidan. “About time you two showed up. We’ve been waiting here for a good 10 minutes.”

“Well, we had to lock up Nassana’s pit bulls before we left.” Shepard said with a cocky grin. “Don’t want those things running loose in the hotel now, do we?”

She just rolled her eyes as she held out a card with the Hotel de Paris emblem on it. “She’s being held in the Winston Churchill suite – this will give you access to the private elevator.”

“Isn’t using an elevator a bit conspicuous?” Kaidan asked. “I mean… they’ll hear us coming.”

Tali gave a nod. “Unfortunately, it’s the only way – the stairs near the suite are a one-way-only kind of thing, and going in through the roof is out of the question.”

“So there’s going to be a fight.” Shepard said with an excited look on his face. “Do you know how many I should expect?”

The young woman gave another nod. “Since you two decided to take your sweet time, I was able to go over some security footage – to see who came in and out. Seven men brought Liara into the room two days ago, and three left shortly after. A few other people have come in and out since then; some of them I assume to be rotating out guard duty, but none of them have been Saren.”

“Makes sense - he wouldn’t be caught dead guarding someone since he doesn’t have the patience.” Shepard replied with a nod. “So… I’m looking at about 5 guys… I’m sure I can handle it.”

“No you can’t, Shepard.” Garrus said. “I’m coming with you.”

“I need you to help me get into Synthetic Insights.” Tali objected.

Garrus turned to look at her. “Shepard’s good, but he can’t take on five guys by himself when they’re going to hear him coming.”

“And Tali is going to be able to break into a secured building by herself?” Shepard threw out. “I can handle it, Garrus – she needs your help now more than I do, okay?”

“Shepard…” Garrus began to object.

“I’ll go with him.” Kaidan suddenly spoke up.

“We need someone waiting at the rendezvous point...” Shepard said as he shot around to look at the professor.

The professor took a few steps down so that he was in the middle of everyone. “No. I’m going to rescue Liara.” He was using that same tone from earlier in the evening – how he was going to do it, no matter what. Shepard was slowly realizing that the professor was quite possibly more stubborn than he was.

Kaidan’s declaration brought a laugh out of Garrus. “You know, professor, it’s amusing you think you can play with the big boys because you carried a gun around in a desert for a few years ago, but you’re really getting in over your head.” He pointed his finger into the professor’s face to emphasize his point.

If Shepard hadn’t had as sharp of eyes as he did, he might had missed the fast and fluid motions of the professor as he grabbed Garrus’ hand, spun him around, and slammed him against the wall of the stairwell. The other treasure hunter tried to jab his elbow into the professor’s ribs to break free, but the blow was blocked and met with an elbow from the other man instead.

“You know… I’m getting pretty damn fed up with you and how you think I’m some kind of baby who’s some kind of burden to you all.” Kaidan said in a low, deadly serious voice. “You don’t even know half the things I’m capable of, so just keep your mouth shut unless you really want to piss me off.” He gave a hard shove to Garrus as he let him out of his grip and took a few steps back.

Garrus shot around, fist clenched, looking ready to strike the professor, but instead, all he did was give Kaidan a piercing stare that didn’t even cause the other man to flinch. For what seemed hours but were mere seconds, the tension hung in the air. Suddenly, a smile cracked across the treasure hunter’s face. “Well… maybe you might be able to deal with one or two of Saren’s thugs… you know, if they’re pretty small.” He then turned to look at Shepard. “The elevator isn’t far from here.Just turn left out the stairwell, and then make another left and it’ll be right there.”

Shepard gave his friend curt nod of confirmation. “You two keep safe.”

“Oh, you know me, Shepard,” a devilish grin crossed Garrus’ face, “my middle name is “Safe”.”

An amused smile crossed Tali’s face. “Don’t worry, Shepard, I’ll make sure Garrus doesn’t cause too much trouble.”

Garrus’ attention turned back to Kaidan. “You better make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid, professor.”

“Is that even possible?” Kaidan cracked back.

That got a laugh out of Shepard’s partner. “Well, if you figure it out, let me know. It might get me back about 5 or 6 years of my lifespan.” He and the young woman turned and headed off to complete their task, leaving Shepard and Kaidan alone.

As the two stood there, Shepard turned to look at the other man. “Kaidan… you absolutely sure you want to do this?”

The professor crossed his arms and arched one of his thick black eyebrows again. “I understand you’re worried about my safety, Shepard, but I really can take care of myself. So, yes, I’m absolutely sure.”

He wouldn’t lie to himself and say he wasn’t still worried, but fighting with the other man was proving to be futile. So, Shepard did the only thing he could do - he reached out a hand and placed it on Kaidan’s shoulder. “Alright… stay close and be ready for anything.” He then led the way for the two of them from the stairs to the private elevator to the suite. When they reached it though, the faint hum of the elevator in motion could be heard. That was potentially a very bad thing; there could be even more mercenaries guarding Dr. T’Soni than expected.

“I think it’s coming down.” Kaidan said as he listened closely. “Maybe…”

Shepard was pretty sure he was on the same wave length as the other man. “…I’ll stand on this side of the door, you stand on that side? Take out whoever comes out and see if they have anything on them?”

The corner of Kaidan’s mouth lifted up. “Pretty much, yeah.”

He then took his position and the two men waited for the door to open. As the door opened up, two intimidating-looking, muscular men stepped out, completely unaware of the two other men right outside the elevator door. Shepard grabbed the one nearest him by the collar of his shirt, pulled him close, and delivered a strong blow to the face, while the professor chopped the other mercenary in the windpipe, stunning the man long enough so he could smash the mercenary’s’ face into his knee.

“A little aggressive, professor?” Shepard cracked with just a touch of awe in his voice. “I didn’t know they taught that in the Canadian Army.”

“They didn’t.” Kaidan confirmed as he opened the knocked-out merc’s jacket, finding a silenced pistol. “I picked that up at a US Army base from some Special Forces guys who were around for a few days.”

 Shepard did the same and also found a pistol, as well as a few extra clips. “Convenient.” He responded, before he then looked around, and saw that there was a storage closet nearby. “Hey, let’s stash them in there.”

Once the two had tossed the mercenaries away, and Shepard jammed the lock, they returned to the elevator, used the card, and entered. As they elevator went up, Shepard handed the extra clip to Kaidan. “Let’s just hope they just think their buddies forgot something and aren’t ready to unload their guns into the elevator.”

Kaidan was looking around, inspecting the interior of the elevator – its golden sides were to a mirror polish. “Well, when the door opens, we’ll have maybe two seconds advantage to see if anyone is waiting outside for us… let’s hope that’s enough if they’ve got guns drawn.”

They then each took position on either side of the door, guns at the ready. Shepard’s eyes were peeled on the wall opposite of the door, and when it opened, he saw the reflection of two men, hands half in their jackets ready to pull out their guns. It was too late though. Shepard whipped around the corner and double-tapped the trigger, hitting one in the heart, the other in the head.

Kaidan whipped around the corner just a half-second after Shepard, his gun drawn and pointed at where one of the two men had been standing, looking at what the man beside him had just done. He let out an odd chuckle that was partly impressed, partly flabbergasted. “Wow… nice shots.”

Shepard still had his gun on the man he had hit in the heart, just in case he wasn’t really down, but a grin came across his face. “Hey, I could have sworn back in Greece you didn’t like how I’ve killed before.”

“That was before these assholes kidnapped Liara and tried to kidnap me.” Kaidan answered. “Now, I don’t care what the hell happens to them.”

“You think you could take one down if you have to?” Shepard asked.

Kaidan looked him right in the eyes with an intense look. “I told you, I don’t care what happens to them.”

Satisfied with both the merc being down and Kaidan’s answer, Shepard raised his gun and slowly exited the elevator and made his way to the door. “It’s probably not best for both of us to go in through the front door, just in case they try holding Dr. T’Soni at gunpoint.”

Kaidan pointed to a door a little ways away down the red hall. “I think when Tali was going over the floor plan of this suite, she said there was a way from the elevator to the private terrace, and it wraps around the majority of the suite. I’ll break in through there.”

It was a good idea to infiltrate from two points, Shepard thought to himself, even if it was a little risky since they still were not entirely sure there were only one or three or more mercenaries still in the suite. “Alright. Just… be careful, okay?”

 “Same goes for you, Shepard.” The professor gave him a reassuring nod before he quickly and quietly dashed through the door on the far side of the red hallway.

Shepard dashed up to the wall near the door and slowly turned the handle and slipped quickly and quietly inside, closed the door silently and slowly progressed in as he hugged the wall. As he made his way inside, he could hear the sound of two men talking about sports. When he neared the corner, he saw them both sitting on a couch. He also noticed that most of the blinds that covered the exterior glass walls of the suite were drawn. That meant that Kaidan wouldn’t be seen moving about on the terrace unless someone was out there, but Shepard was sure Kaidan could take care of one of these thugs. In the meantime, Shepard was ready to take care of the two in his sights. He swiftly moved out from cover and pulled his trigger twice again, striking both men in their heads, and then began to cautiously advance into the suite.

The logical plan for keeping someone in a location with an L-shaped terrace would be to keep them at the furthest location from the exit, so Shepard made his way towards the right side of the suite. He found a hallway with a door near the end, and, as he approached it, he could hear the sounds of someone moving coming from within. He suddenly rushed through the door of the bedroom to find Dr. Liara T’Soni, dressed in a simple white blouse and khaki capris, pacing back and forth with something in her hand. She stopped moving as soon as Shepard charged through the door.

“I told you, I haven’t found…” She shouted as she turned around, but as her eyes reached Shepard’s, a look of joy and relief filled her face. “…Shepard? Shepard, is that you?”

A warm smile crossed his face. “I’m here to get you out of here. I’ve already took care of the two by the elevator and the two in the living room, plus there are two more locked in a closet downstairs.”

Fear suddenly filled her eyes. “But… there’s always 5 inside the suite at all times…”

Shepard was about to shoot back into his cautious stance, but the feel of cold metal against the back of his head mean it was already too late.

“The boss said you might try to save the pretty little doctor, Shepard.” The gruff, twisted voice of one of the mercenary said in an amused tone. “Trying to escape is pointless – I’ve already called up more men and they’ll be here in minutes, so just drop it.”

“I’m amazed you know about me.” Shepard said as the gun fell from his hands.

That got a laugh out of the merc. “Everyone in the company knows about Shepard… we also know that we’re not supposed to kill you…” He brought his mouth close to Shepard’s ear. “…but unlike all those other pussies on their way up now, I’m not afraid of Saren.”

“You’re an idiot then.” Shepard replied back, relatively amused.

The merc gave a condescending laugh. “I’ll just tell them you resisted, that I didn’t have a choice but to shoot you dead.”

Suddenly, a low, sharp thwump pierced the air, followed directly by the sound of a skull cracking, brain matter splattering, and Dr. T’Soni shrieking. It was almost enough to give Shepard a headache. He turned around to look at the now-dead merc, then down the hall to see Kaidan with the gun still firmly gripped in his hands, and that same serious look on his face.

“Thanks for saving my ass.” Shepard said to the professor as the other man made his way down the hall.

Kaidan gave a nod as he stepped into the doorway, before he turned looked at Liara. A relieved smile crossed his face. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”

“Kaidan?!” There was a bit of terror in Liara’s voice as she looked at her assistant and the gun in his hand.

He looked at her, then at the gun in his hand, then back at her. “This doesn’t matter right now, Liara. We need to get out of here.”

“Well, we’re not going the way we came – reinforcements are coming.” Shepard said to the professor.

“The balconies below us aren’t that far – we could drop down to one of those and then go through the other side of the hotel.” Kaidan suggested.

Shepard nodded. “Sounds like a plan.  Youget Liara out of here and I’ll hold them off.”

Kaidan’s eyes widened, in alarm at Shepard’s orders. “What do you mean you’ll hold them off? That’s crazy, they’ll…”

A raised hand from the treasure hunter cut Kaidan off. “No, they won’t kill me.Saren wants me for himself too bad. That guy you took out… he was stupid, but I don’t think that I’ll be so lucky with the others. So… you two get out of here, and I’ll hold them off.”

“I’m not going to just leave you behind to get killed by that bastard.” There was an odd rage in Kaidan’s eyes.

Shepard suddenly gave a light jab to Kaidan’s stomach. It wasn’t strong enough to really hurt him, just only enough to knock him off guard for a second to claim the gun from the professor’s hand. “You know, I can tell you right now you’re not going to win this argument, so just go ahead and get Dr. T’Soni out of here before I pick you up and throw you down to one of the balconies below.”

Kaidan’s eyes met Shepard’s again, and the two men glared each other down for a long, drawn-out moment. Finally, the professor closed his eyes and let out a slow, deep breath. When he opened them, there was a different kind of fire in them. “You better not get yourself killed.” He then walked over to Liara and held out his hand. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”

She gave a nod as she took his hand and allowed him to help her off the bed. She took a few steps before stopping. “Wait! These people… they gave me things to look over… things related to our research. I’m not leaving them behind.” She rushed over to a desk and picked up some books and files before returning to the bed, taking a case off its pillow and stuffing it full of the documents, before returning to Kaidan’s side.

As they began to make their way back down the hall to get back to the point where Kaidan had entered, the professor stopped one last time to look back at Shepard.  A smile came across Kaidan’s face. “Be safe, Shepard.” And with that, Kaidan vanished from view with the doctor, rushing off to safety.

Shepard took in a deep breath as he leaned over and picked up the gun he had dropped, as well as the gun from the dead mercenary’s hand and placed it the back of his pants. He then made his way into the living room of the suite, pulled the guns from the bodies of the two dead men in there and placing them with the other gun on his backside. Then he stood at a good vantage point of the entrance into the suite and waited.

A few minutes later, the door busted open and Shepard began to let his guns sing, taking out anyone who crossed his line of sight, but none of them fired back, much like he expected. However, he had been so focused on his stance, he didn’t realize at first that the men had been wearing gas masks, and though he was taking the men in his view, he didn’t see the ones behind them rolling in smoke grenades until the clouds began to spill out, forcing Shepard to start to fire blindly. His first two guns ran out of bullets, so he pulled two of the three from his back. Soon, more smoke grenades were lobbed in and the room was beginning to overflow with the smoke, causing Shepard’s vision to blur and him to cough. It wasn’t much longer after that when the mercenaries were on him, and though he tried to shoot them, hitting a few with both bullets and the butt of the pistol, the men soon overwhelmed him and began restraining him. Then, Shepard felt a prick on his arm and the world began to suddenly fade to black.

**  
**


	8. Dangerous Waters

The world came back to life in a very painful jolt.Shepard let out a scream of pain through gritted teeth as something pointed jabbed into his side, sending hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity through him. It wasn’t a sensation he was unfamiliar with; back with the Spectres he had gone through torture resistance training; but it didn’t mean it still didn’t hurt like a bitch. He couldn’t say how long the prod was against his bare chest, and definitely not now long he had even been unconscious, but when the thing was finally pulled back from his skin, Shepard stopped screaming and slumped forward, breathing heavy. His vision and mind were still somewhat hazy,due to the effects of whatever was used to drug him, but he was trying to get a sense of at least where he was. He could feel that he was bound by the wrists behind his back, ankles together and across his chest as well to something cold and hard, most likely a metal chair. The room was lowly lit, mostly from the warm ambient light of city lights; hopefully the lights of Monaco; coming in from windows behind him. Even in the low light though, the lavishness of the room was still apparent. There was also an odd swaying motion that wasn’t caused by the aftereffects of the drugs – the motion of water against the hull of a boat. Shepard was trying to piece more together when a low, twisted laugh began to fill the air, but he didn’t need to think for a second to know exactly who it was. He rolled his head around until his eyes fell upon an unmistakable silhouette. “Saren…” Things began to focus in a red tint at the scarred face of the man before him.

“So sorry to wake you, Shepard, but I really need you to start telling me where you rushed Dr. T’Soni off to so I can get to killing you.” There was a tone of twisted amusement as Saren was tapping the electric prod in one of his gloved hands.

“Go to hell.” Shepard spit right into the face of his captor. “Better yet,untie me so I can send you there myself.”

Saren wiped the spit from his face as he let out a condescending laugh. “As full of bravado as ever, I see…” He then jabbed the electric prod into Shepard’s side again, eliciting another scream.

When Saren finally pulled the prod back, Shepard slumped over again, but through pain and labored breath, he began to laugh. “Why are you wasting my time? You should know this isn’t going to make me talk.”

The mercenary looked down at the prod and let out a low laugh “Oh, this isn’t to get you to talk – it’s just to wake you up.” He then dropped the prod before he slammed Shepard’s head into the back of the chair he was tied to and got face-to-face with the treasure hunter. “I know that you’ll never talk since you were trained to resist from the best, from me. I could go at you all night…” He slid out a hooked knife from a holster on his hip and brought the tip of it to slightly above Shepard’s temple, the very sharp tip barely breaking skin. “…and you wouldn’t let out a sound other than a few screams and insults from the _physical_ pain I would inflict on _you_.” As he spoke, he slowly dragged the blade down, going slightly deeper and slightly deeper, before he finally flicked his wrist away, leaving a gash a few inches long and cutting through the restrained man’s hairline. “No… so I’m not going to waste time and effort to do anything to you – not break your bones, not flay you alive, not even really hit you that much,not until I’ve broken you by making you watch me slowly kill the very few people you were foolish enough to get close to you if you don’t start talking.”

Shepard let out a growl lunged forward in rage, but due to the restraints it was in vain.

That only amused Saren. “Oh, who to start with first? Your best friend Garrus? No… that’s too obvious, I want to build up your despair. There’s that doctor in London who always patches you up, Chakwas. But old people are no fun to start off with, so she’ll probably be one of the last ones when my patience is wearing thin…” A wickedly twisted smile came across the scarred visage. “How about that little Russian hacker Garrus has? Or is it had… I never cared to keep track. Anyways… what was her name? Natalia… yes, but, wait, she went by something else… oh, yes… _Tali_.” The smile became even more pleased and demented. “Yes, Tali would make an excellent place to start. “

“You son of a bitch! Don’t you threaten to hurt my friends!” Shepard shouted out as he continued to fight against his restraints.

The mercenary ignored him as he began to play with the knife in his hands. “You know… this was the same knife I used to slit the throat of the feisty Ms. Williams. I had intended to do so much more to her than that, but she was a fighter in the most annoying way,  even after I shot out her knees and shoulders. She wouldn’t scream, wouldn’tlet me enjoy the pain I was inflicting on her. I have a feeling though that precious Russian flower of yours won’t be so strong-willed though... Oh… I see her screaming in seconds after my knife starts carving into her flesh. I’ll make her scream, make her beg for death… though it will only come once I’m done with her, and who knows when that would be? 30 minutes? An hour, a day? A week? Hell, maybe I’ll break my personal best and go a month? And, the best part of all,” Saren leaned in close to Shepard’s face again and his voice became a low, menacing hiss “you’ll get to watch every second of it… unless you tell me where Dr. T’Soni is.”

With rage-filled eyes, Shepard stared down Saren. “Even if I did tell you, I know you. You would still try to go after my friends, so I have a counter-offer. I give you a 5 minute head start to run for your life before I track your ass down and slowly kill _you_.”

Saren suddenly shoved his arm against Shepard’s throat and pushed him back, slowly starting to choke the man. “You’re not exactly in a position to make offers like that.” He then balled up his free hand into a fist and began repetitively hitting Shepard in the gut. When he finally stopped, right near the point Shepard was about to pass out from lack of air, the merc slowly backed up a few steps. “You know, I was trying to be nice. Kill you so you wouldn’t watch me mutilate everyone you care for – but I can now see that was pointless.” He pulled out a radio from off his belt. “I need three men to come entertain my guest. I’m about to go hunting. Tell them they can have a little fun, but not to break anything too much.”

“Copy that, boss.” A voice responded. Saren was about to put the radio back on his hip when the voice continued to speak. “Also, sir, Dr. Droyas wishes to speak to you… he mentioned something about our employer.”

Saren let out an irritated groan. “What does that illusive man want now?” He then pressed the button on the radio. “Fine, tell the good doctor I’m on my way to see him, but if he’s wasting my time, I’ll gut him right there in his lab.”

The man on the other end confirmed his orders, and the radio went silent. Saren began making his way to the door as three large, brutish men entered. But, before his crossed the threshold, Saren turned to look at Shepard. “So sorry to cut our little reunion so short, you know, but I have your friends to hunt down, and bring here to kill.”

“Fu…ck… you, bast…bastard!” Shepard was coughing heavily as he still struggled to breath, but the rage in his eyes spoke the volumes his lungs could not muster. “…going to… get out… kill men… kill you…”

A twisted smile crossed Saren’s face. “Try not to have too much fun with my guest boys.” The three new men just laughed as Saren ignored Shepard’s threat and left the room, shutting the door behind him to leave his men and Shepard to themselves.

Now that Saren was gone, Shepard’s head seemed to get a little clearer – the anger subsiding just enough so that he could think and examine his situation. It only took a few seconds to realize though that unless he found some way to unbind himself, he was kinda screwed.

The thugs were standing there, just waiting, listening to the sounds of Saren’s heavy steps walking away. A few moments later, once they were satisfied that their boss was off the deck, the largest one of the three walked right up to Shepard and punched him across the blood-soaked side of his face so hard it knocked the bounded man and his chair over onto the floor with a clash. “I can’t believe the boss even cares about a little bitch like this.” The man who punched Shepard said in dumbfoundment with his thick Australian accent before letting out another laugh before he kicked Shepard in the gut.

Shepard coughed, sending the blood pooling inside and around his mouth across the floor. “Untie me and I’ll show you who the little bitch is.”

“Do I look that stupid to you?” The Australian merc said as he kicked Shepard again.

That made Shepard laugh. “Actually, yeah, you do.”

The merc then yanked Shepard up from the floor by his hair and reared back his fist to punch the bounded man full-force in the square of his face when one of the other men stopped him. “Hey… the boss said not to break him – do YOU want to be on the receiving end of whatever Saren has in store for this guy instead?”

The Australian hesitated for a second before he brought his fist back down to his side and let Shepard fall to the floor again before a twisted smile came across his face. “Well… if I can’t break him…”

As Shepard lay on his side on the floor, groaning from the pain of having just been yanked up by his hair then dropped, the unnerving feeling like he got from his last visit in a Panamanian jail began to rise from the pit of his stomach. It was cemented in when he saw the large merc slowly walked around behind him while he was beginning to play with the buckle of his belt. But, before the merc could walk fully behind Shepard, a sudden loud thud outside the room caused him and his companions alarm.

The Australian looked at the third merc in the room. “Go see what that was.” The other mercenary went to open the door, but, before he could, it violently flung open knocking him back and into the second merc, the two of them crashing to the floor.

Rushing through the door with a silenced gun at the ready was a familiar, stone-cold face – Garrus -   dressed in jeans and a blue tee, with something strapped to his back. For some odd reason, one side of his face seemed swollen. Whatever was wrong with him didn’t affect him at all, apparently, since even before Shepard’s long-time companion was fully inside the room, he had swiftly unloaded a few rounds into the chest of the large Australian mercenary, taking him down. He then turned his gun on the other two;one trying to get back up, the other trying to radio for back-up, and put a bullet in each of their heads. As soon as they were down, an amused smile came across his lips. “I can’t even leave you alone in an up-scale place, can I?”

“And make both of our lives easier? Never.”  Shepard replied with a strained laugh. “So… got any aspirin? My head is throbbing.”

That got a laugh out of Garrus. “Sorry, fresh out. But, what I can give you is some good news – Tali mined a motherlode of data out that server, including on where they drag your sorry ass.”

“That’s not like Saren to announce where he drags people off to.” Shepard said, puzzled.

Garrus nodded in agreement. “Yeah… well, whoever hired Saren apparently doesn’t trust him one bit – they have all his radios, phones, computers, transports and even this boat bugged, tagged and tapped.”

“So whoever is behind this all isn’t stupid.” Shepard stated. “Whatever – that doesn’t matter right now –get me free so I can go and kill that bastard Saren.”

“Probably not a good idea.” Another man’s voice said from beyond the door. It was somewhat rough yet very smooth at the same time. It was also very familiar as well. Stepping into view from behind Garrus, Kaidan was now out of the tux and in jeans and a dark grey dress shirt. In one of his hands was a gun, the other, a black bag that from within came a beeping and flashing red light that he quickly tossed into the corner of the cabin near the outer hull. “This place is about to go up in a big ball of fire in 5 minutes.”

“That’s 4 minutes to get to him, a few seconds to put a bullet in his head, and about 30 seconds to jump off this boat before it goes down like a fiery Titanic.” There was a rage-fueled determination in Shepard’s words that was also reflected in his eyes as he looked at Garrus. “He threatened Tali.”

The amused look on Garrus’ face disappeared. “I’m going to put the bullet in his head personally.”

Kaidan grabbed Garrus’ shoulder. “What about the plan?”

The treasure hunter turned around to look at the professor. “Screw the plan! He threated someone I…” he hesitated on his choice of words for a moment. “…someone I don’t want to see get hurt by anyone.”

“But Garrus…!” Kaidan started to say in a hushed aggressive tone before he was suddenly stopped by the sound of someone coughing who was not him, Garrus or Shepard.

There was a beep and a short burst of static “Va…Vakarian.” The strained voice of the Australian merc spoke.

Garrus quickly rushed up to the dying merc and put a bullet into his head, but he knew it was already too late. “Damn it! I knew I should have made sure he was dead.” He kneeled down, pulled out a knife, and started to cut Shepard free. “Professor, get Shepard out of here – I’m going for Saren.”

“Like hell you’re going!” Shepard protested. As much as he wanted to kill Saren personally, with his men now on full alert and on their way down to the room, it was impossible to go after the mercenary who killed Ashley and make it out in time. “You’ll never make it to Saren before this place blows!”

“I don’t want to leave it to chance that the blast will take him out!” Garrus shot back. “Or did you forget the last time we tried to blow him up didn’t exactly work?”

“I hear them!” Kaidan turned and shouted at Shepard and Garrus. “We need to get out NOW!”

The two friends locked eyes, arguing without words what seemed like hours but was mere seconds. Finally, Garrus broke his gaze away. “Fine… we get out.” He handed Shepard his gun as he pulled around the short-barrel assault rifle that was strapped to his back and made his way to the door. As the first of the mercenaries made their way down the staircase at the fall side of the hall, Garrus let out a volley of bullets, striking them down. “I’ll cover you two – professor, lead the way to the engine room. When Shepard’s there, you two give me cover.”

Kaidan nodded before he crouched down, gun at the ready, and, when everything looked clear, made a rush to a doorway about mid-way down the hall. A few moments after he crossed the threshold, he waved for Shepard to head over.

Shepard crouched down, and was readying to make the dash as well, but he looked up at his friend for a moment. “You’re not just giving cover to try to ditch me and Kaidan later to go after Saren, are you?”

Garrus shot his friend an annoyed look. “I leave the stupid stunts like that for you, Shepard.”

With a satisfied smile on his face from his friend’s response, Shepard shot out of the room from where he had been held captive. He was barely a few feet away from the door though when someone peered around the corner of the stairwell and took aim at him. He went to raise his gun to take the shot, but the ratatat of Garrus’ assault rifle rang out, taking out the mercenary, and allowing Shepard to reach Kaidan. He quickly moved the professor over and took position to give cover for Garrus.

Once the third man was with them, Kaidan quickly slammed the door short as Garrus secured it and jammed the lock. The three then began to rush along the escape route through the maintenance hallway until they came upon a ladder that led down to the engine room. As they made their way through, Shepard couldn’t help but notice several red flashing lights all throughout vital parts of the engines; the yacht really was set to blow sky-high. He didn’t have much time to think about it, though, as they reached another door.

“This leads to the rear deck and the dock.” Kaidan said “They’ll probably be watching that now, so dive into the water and we’ll swim to the other side and wait for this thing to blow.” He and Shepard then took cover as Garrus carefully opened the door. They were promptly met by a storm of bullets.

“Fantastic…” Shepard groaned as he looked at Garrus who had barely missed getting shot. “Wouldn’t happen to have a grenade or two, would you?”

Garrus shrugged. “Sorry, fresh out.” He then looked over at Kaidan. “How much time do we have?”

Kaidan looked at his watch, and his eyes widened. “About 2 minutes.”

“Shit.” Garrus cursed. “Well… if anyone has any bright ideas, now is the time to

Kaidan was looking around the room when something caught his eye. “Ya know what? I think I just got one…” The professor swiftly made his way over to a corner, leaving Shepard and Garrus both a little confused.

When Kaidan came back moments later, Garrus grinned at the fire extinguisher in the professor’s hands. “I’m pretty sure we can work with that.”

Kaidan handed it over to Shepard. The treasure hunter then proceeded to throw his extinguisher through the door. Predictably, the mercenaries shot at the object that came flying at them before they realized exactly what it was.

As that tank exploded and, Garrus leaned out behind his cover and let out a storm of bullets in the direction of where the shots came from to thin out the numbers of the mercenaries on the deck. “They’re not going to stay down and confused forever! Let’s go!”

The three then made a mad dash through the white cloud of extinguisher foam towards the water, unloading a few bullets into whoever got in their way while they dodged the ones being fired at them.  Almost in-sync, they dived head-first into the sea and began to swim down and forward, underneath the pier as well as a few other boats and yacht to get away from the ship and the shock of the explosion that was rapidly approaching.

They surfaced about 60 feet away on the other side of the pier, behind the cover of another boat, to catch their breaths. The voices of Saren’s men filled the air as they yelled out to one another as they searched for the two treasure hunters and the professor. As he treaded the water as quietly as possible, Shepard looked at his two rescuers. “You know… those charges could hurry up and go off all…”

As if on cue, a sudden rumbling boom followed by a massive pillar of smoke and flame filled the night air. Debris began to rain down on the water and the dock around the now-sinking yacht, and Saren’s men were in a frenzy of confusion. Moments later from within the city, the sirens of emergency response began to ring from within the city.

“Maybe Saren was caught in that?” Kaidan said rather hesitantly but with a touch of optimism.

Garrus shook his head. “The last time we tried blowing him up, the fireball was twice that size – we just probably really pissed him off.”

“Well…” From the look on his face professor was now trying to find something good from the situation. “…um… the firefighters and police that are on their way will slow him down?”

Shepard looked at Kaidan as if he was a crazy person for a moment – he knew that something as small and petty as police wouldn’t even cause Saren pause. He looked over at Garrus. “Please tell me we have a plan of escape that doesn’t involve swimming or climbing back onto that pier.”

The other treasure hunter nodded, though he did not seem pleased one bit. “Yeah…” He cocked his ear as some sound above the chaos of the pier caught his attention. “And it sounds like they’re almost here.”

“They?” That confused Shepard for just a moment, but then he heard something. If Garrus wouldn’t of have mentioned it, Shepard would have most likely not heard the slowly approaching boat motor due to the sounds of the raging fire, the yelling from the men on the pier and the sirens from the city. For a moment, he was a bit confused at who it could be, but when he saw the two women on the approaching boat, Shepard shot enraged looks at the two who had saved him. “What are Tali and Dr. T’Soni doing here?”

Kaidan rubbed a hand through his soaking wet and now-curling hair. “We tried to make them go on ahead to the airport in Nice… then Tali smacked Garrus in the face with the butt of her shotgun and pointed it at me.”

“We can tell Shepard how Tali’s a lot tougher than he knew later.” Garrus suddenly cut in with a very embarrassed tone. “Right now, let’s get our asses out of here.” Using the still-ensuing chaos as cover, the three men swam as fast as they could to the boat.

As Shepard began to pull himself up, he felt the hands of the young Russian woman;now out of the cocktail dress and now wearing a long black t-shirt, black leggings, and her usual cropped purple hoodie; wrap around one of his arms and help him in. “You know… breaking into an office building to go hacking, I don’t have a problem with… but this Tali? Do you know how dangerous this is?”

“Вы не моя мать.” Though he wasn’t sure what Tali said, it was most likely not very nice from her tone. “Just like I told Garrus, I can take care of myself.”

Shepard didn’t argue; testing Tali’s patience seemed to be a futile task that night, if Garrus’ face was any evidence of it. Instead, as soon as he was on-board, he turned to help Kaidan out of the water as Tali aided Garrus. Once the other two men were on the boat as well, he turned to Dr. T’Soni who was at the helm. “Get us the hell out of here!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice, Shepard.” Liara replied as she pushed the throttle forward and the boat began to speed away.

As the boat Shepard and the others were in began to pass the rows of boats and the flaming, sinking wreckage of the yacht Saren had and into the open waters of the Mediterranean, someone from the pier shouted. “There they are! They’re getting away!”

“Boats! Boats! To the boats!” Another voice shouted.

Though they had the head-start, Shepard suspected it wouldn’t last too long. He turned to Garrus. “Please tell me we have a lot more than these three guns and Tali’s shotgun?”

Garrus just smiled before he turned around and lifted up one of the seats, revealing a cache of guns. He pulled out two more assault rifles and gave them each to Shepard and Kaidan. “I take the right, the professor takes the left, and you take up the rear?”

“I like the sound of that plan.” Shepard said with a cheeky grin. He then looked at Kaidan. “How about you?”

The professor gave a nod as he took his position in one of the seats on the portside of the boat. Garrus and Shepard then took up theirs just in time to hear the roaring of several boat motors going top-speed.

“Dr. T’Soni!” Shepard shouted over the noise “Can we go any faster?”

“Not without great risks.” Liara answered back. “The water is choppy tonight – if I go any faster and hit a particularly strong wave, any of you could be knocked over board, or, worse, we could capsize.”

Shepard cursed under his breath at the news and, moments later, five vessels came into sight, rapidly converging upon him and his companions.

When one of the boats neared their own, Garrus let out a volley of fire, peppering the side of the pursuing ship, but accomplishing little else. “You think you could drive this thing a little smoother, Doc?” He shouted out to Liara as he quickly dropped down to dodge the fire from the other boat.

“I don’t think that’s possible.” Liara shouted back over the roar of the motors and sounds of gunfire. “Like I just told Shepard, the water is too choppy, so the only way to have a smoother ride would be to slow down and…” The woman suddenly paused mid-though. “Wait… that was a rhetorical question, wasn’t it?”

Two more boats were now closing in, both from the right side, and though Kaidan was quickly on them, the two targets were proving to be a handful. “Shepard!” Kaidan shouted. “A little help?”

Shepard quickly ducked out of his cover and aimed towards the farther of the two boats on the right. He let loose a volley of bullets, piercing through the front of the hull. Almost instantly after, the boat was engulfed in a massive ball of flames. At the same time, Kaidan’s latest volley of shots hit the driver of the other boat on the right. The sudden loss of acceleration caused it to get smashed by the still-in-motion flaming wreckage of the other boat. When the two collided, a second blast erupted.

“Nice one!” Garrus shouted as he turned to look barely seconds after hearing the explosions.

In the brief time that Garrus had taken his eyes off them, the mercenaries in the boat had used the momentary distraction to get in close. One had a gun aimed and ready to shoot as Garrus was turning back around when suddenly the distinctive boom of a shotgun rang out, followed by half of the mercenary’s face exploding away. Garrus turned to see Tali kneeling up beside him, reloading the chamber of her gun with a quick pump before firing upon the merc behind the wheel of the boat. The force of the shot caused the now-dead driver to veer off too sharply to the left and the boat went into a tumble, breaking apart in a spectacular fashion.

With a rather pleased smile, Tali looked down at Garrus. “How have you survived all these months without me near you?”

Garrus suddenly pulled her down from where she was perched, just as a bullet when flying where he head was seconds before. “I learned how to take cover many years ago.”

Shepard rolled around to look at the two with a slightly annoyed look. “Um… can you both focus on the people who are trying to kill us for more than a few seconds?”

“Um… Shepard?” Interrupting Shepard’s lecture to his friends, Liara called out from the wheel, her voice full of worry. “We have a slight problem.”

“More of a problem than the people trying to kill us?” Shepard shot back at Dr. T’Soni as he looked at the two remaining boats closing in on them.

“Well… that depends…” The worry in her voice was now growing “…how much of a problem do you consider a cruise ship being in the middle of our path is?”

The four in the back of the boat suddenly took their eyes off their pursuers and turned to look ahead of them. Pulling out of dock from the city was a massive ocean liner and their small boat was on a direct path to crash right into it.

“Get ahead of it!” Garrus shouted at Liara.

She shook her head. “Even at this speed, we wouldn’t be able to get ahead of in time – we would be crushed by it.”

“Then go behind!” He shouted out instead.

“I know that!” She was now getting even more nervous and on-edge. “But that’s dangerous too! The wake of the ship is going to toss us around and possibly capsize us.”

Garrus went to yell something again when Shepard cut him off. “Strap in.” He then turned to look at Kaidan and Tali. “You too – everyone make sure you’re in tight.” He then took the seat across from Liara and secured himself in before he looked back at doctor. “Get behind the ship and punch it!”

“We could capsize though!” Liara protested.

“Trust me, Dr. T’Soni… drowning is a better way to die than what those thugs will do to us.” Though it didn’t come off entirely how he meant it, Shepard was trying to be reassuring.

Liara took a deep breath as her hand hesitated over the throttle for a moment. “I… I don’t know, Shepard…”

“Liara.” Kaidan was right behind her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I know it’s crazy, but you can trust Shepard… he promised me he’d free you, and he came through. Just… just trust his judgment, okay? “

With a nod, Liara finally pushed the throttle to full and the boat rocketed forward into the path of the cruise ship’s wake. It didn’t take long for them to start feeling the effects the much larger vessel was having on the waters behind it, as the boat Shepard and the others was on began to rock heavily back and forth.

“Keep going…” Shepard egged on. “…going… GOOOOING…”

They hit the first part of the wake and the boat rocketed out of the water and into the air for a few seconds before crashing back into the water. Moments later, the boat cut through the second of the artificially-created swells, causing water to splash up and inside the boat, soaking the passengers, yet they were still fine, still going, and soon crashed through the third main swell of the wake, taking air again and escaping the most dangerous part of the ocean liner’s wake, even though the water around the main wake was still rather rough.

As the boat sped on, everyone except for Liara turned around to look at their pursuers. The first of the boats made the jump of the first swell, but as they landed, they flipped over and the boat was quickly pulled under the water. The second boat, after seeing what happened to the first one, made a hard right and began to go around the wake of the cruise ship. That was enough though – no matter how hard the mercenaries in the remaining boat tried, they wouldn’t be able to catch up with Shepard and the others now.

Shepard let out a sigh of relief now that they were safe from Saren’s men. “So… where we heading?”

“The airport in Nice.” Tali replied. “I’ve chartered us a plane.”

“Where to?” Shepard began to inquire. “Moscow, to take you back first? NYC to get the doctor and the professor home? London’s a nice halfway point too…”

“Casablanca.” Kaidan answered.

There was something about the way Kaidan spoke - paired by the oddly gleeful look that Garrus wore - that made Shepard know that during the bit of time he was unconscious they found something out… something big, too. Shepard lost the cheerful expression he had been wearing and looked at them all. “Anybody care to fill me in on what I’ve missed?”

“Those answers you wanted.” Kaidan replied “We found the cause of everything that’s happened to us the past few days.  Not here though… there are things you need to see, need to hear to see the big picture.”

Garrus then cut in to the professor’s words. “That’s nice and all you really want to make this a big, climactic reveal, but I think all that Shepard needs to know is we’re getting a cut of what’s inside that vault.”

“Vault?” Shepard shot a confused look at his friend and the professor. “What…?”

Kaidan sighed. “The Protheans… they… their civilization was, well, not exactly what  Liara or I initially thought it was, and… well… the medallion we wanted you to get for us is on its way to an island off the coast of Africa because, turns out, it’s a key to a vault… but there’s a lot more to it than that.”

Tali nodded in agreement with the professor. “The data I mined off the Synthetic Insights servers about this Prothean civilization, Shepard… it’s mind-boggling how much there was. You really need to see it.”

“But not here.” Kaidan elaborated off of the young woman. “A boat going top-speed is not the place to pull this stuff out at.”

The way Kaidan and Tali and even Garrus were talking, Shepard knew what they found out was something out of the ordinary. “Okay… when we get in the air, fill me in on everything. “

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RD1: "You are not my mother."


	9. Answers

There had been little trouble after escaping Saren’s goons, and, within the hour Shepard, his companions, and Dr. T’Soni were in the air. Of course, before they took off, the pilot of the private plane that Tali had secured, a man named Jeff Moreau, had given the group more than a few odd glances due to the tattered and soaked men, the large, heavy black bags that held the group’s weapons and the way all five smelled like freshly-fired gunpowder, yet he didn’t say a word to them.

It was when the pilot had announced to them that they were at a comfortable cruising altitude and had good weather all the way to Casablanca was when Shepard turned his attention to Dr. T’Soni who was seated across from him with a tray table in-between the two of them. “Okay... so how about those answers Kaidan said you had for me back on the boat.”

“The Protheans... they were a much more advanced civilization that spread much further than I had previously thought before.” Liara began as she started to pull out the documents and folders she had been given at the hotel. “My grandfather had tracked their civilization a ways into inland Greece - as well as in parts of Turkey, Italy, and France -before war in Europe broke out, but according to what I had been given by my kidnappers and what your friend Tali recovered from their servers... their civilization was more advanced than I previously though and their culture was not restricted to just the Mediterranean.”

“Well, I already knew they had glowing water and magic green rocks from the place you sent me to in Greece.” Shepard said as he heard the info he knew already repeated to him. “But, when you say they had a further-reaching culture than you thought... how far reaching are we talking about?”

“The coastlines of three continents.” Tali interrupted with the answer as she pulled out a tablet and, a few swipes later she placed the tablet in-between Shepard and Liara. On it was a map with sections large sections of the coastlines of southern Europe, much of both east and west coasts of Africa, and as far East as India highlighted in blue. In addition, there were also several colored dots scattered throughout the colored areas.

Shepard leaned forward, puzzled by the expansive area marked on the map. He arched an eyebrow warily. “Okay... not to point out the obvious, but most of these blue spots – people live there now. How could the Protheans go undiscovered this long?”

“That is a very valid question.” Liara admitted. “From what I was given by my captors, I can say, with confidence, that the reason no one had claimed the discovery is that they just didn’t know they were part of the same culture.” She then turned to looked at Kaidan and made a motion. Seconds later the professor pulled out Liara’s journal, flipped through a few pages, then placed it on the table before she pulled out another folder and did the same. She then flipped through the pages of one of the files she had been given while she was held captive before laying it out as well. Looking at the pages of pictures and writing side-by-side, they were distinctly different, yet when the two from the folders were compared to Liara’s journal there was something oddly similar to them at the same time. “As you know, my journal contains information on the Protheans who were around Greece, while these files I was given are from around India and the east coast of Africa respectively. Now, anyone who wasn’t familiar with my work wouldn’t be able to tell right away that these two were the same culture, but comparing them with the findings from Greece and the visual relation between them becomes instantly apparent. The ruins in Greece are the purest form of their language and culture while the Africa and India sites have evolved to a point so, that when looked at individually, I’m sure just about any archeologist would think the Protheans were a proto-culture much like how I assumed from their settlements in Greece.”

Looking at the images laid out before him, Shepard couldn’t deny the similarities of the African and Indian locations when compared to Liara’s notes from the Greece sites.  Even with everything he had seen in his years as a treasure hunter as well as a mercenary, this was still quite a lot of information for him to take in and wrap his head around – a lost civilization that had been hidden in plain sight.

Apparently sensing that Shepard was still processing everything in his head, Kaidan leaned forward and began to speak from his chair. “It’s not unheard of that ancient culture and societies – especially the laguange - starts to evolve so differently especially when they were apparently so spread-out as these maps are projecting. I mean, on a smaller scale than this, look at any country today and you’ll find unique regional dialects. Of course, it’s obvious from what’s been found these different groups of Protheans this is more than just a bit of a unique dialect change – these are almost entirely new languages... almost entirely new cultures. I could spout out at least half a dozen reasons how it could have happened.”

“Like what, Professor?” Garrus, who had been mostly quiet since after getting rid of Saren’s men, suddenly asked from his chair.

Kaidan turned to the other treasure hunter. “I thought you only cared about what we could find that you could sell, Garrus?” His tone wasn’t pointed, but it was obvious the professor wasn’t expecting the question from the other man.

“Humor me.”

“Well, let’s see...” Kaidan kneeled there for a moment as he collected his thoughts. “The most apparent is isolation - I mean, they are spread out in large clusters over several thousands of miles of coastline, so they could have just developed uniquely overtime. Maybe there were a group of ‘true’ Protheans that taught others their culture through trade or assimilation. There could have even been some kind of war that divided the society. Or maybe even what we’re seeing are other cultures that based their civilization off of ruins and the original Protheans were long-extinct by then.”

“That’s only five reasons, Professor.” Garrus pointed out with a rather unimpressed tone. Tali then smacked him in the back of the head. “...but, I get your point - .”  He added as he rubbed the spot where the young Russian hacker had slapped him.

After grinning from the amusing sight of Garrus getting slapped, Shepard focused back to the matter at hand. “Okay, that kind-of-but-not-really explains who the Protheans. It’s obvious that Dr. T’Soni was kidnapped to go over this data and piece things together, and having her journal and Kaidan would have made things much easier... but you still haven’t told me who the hell hired Saren to do this and why. ”

“They call themselves Cerberus, and they hired Saren and his men to initially secure a location because of initial resistance from the indigenous people, but after that was dealt with, they were kept on for ‘security purposes’.” Tali replied before she let out a sigh of defeat. “I couldn’t tell you who runs it, though, because apparently no one does.”

Shepard arched an eyebrow, slightly confused. “These people sound rather cabal-like and don’t like to get their own hands dirty.”

Tali nodded. “Well, from what little I can tell, that’s pretty much right.” She picked up her tablet and began to flip through things. “Not only do they outsource their muscle so it’s not tied back to them, they go through elaborate lengths to give their people perfect covers. Synthetic Insights is a front company – a really good one too since most of its employees don’t even realize they work for a fake company. Not even Nassana knew – she may have had the key to access the main server hub room, but not the hub itself. Diving around the server, I found documents that talked about Liara’s kidnapping as part of something called ‘Project Awakening’, led by Drs. Argo Droya and Ana Thanoptis. In addition to the two project leads, there are about 30 people working on it and in the documents they are referred to as ‘operatives’ in the “Awakening Cell’. There are reports from other ‘Cells’ that I’m still trying to decrypt, though what little my programs have been able to,  I’ve still found heavy amounts of censoring in the repots.  Honestly, I think this ‘Awakening Cell’ knew only what they need to know and were kept in the dark about everything else Cerberus was up to.”

“Project Awakening? Sounds like they’re trying to wake some kind of sleeping god or something.” Shepard joked. “So, what is it, exactly?”

“’Project Awakening’s goal is to enlighten humanity to its true origins and unite us together for the Age of Enlightenment the knowledge of locked within the Ilos Vault.’” Tali began to read from something on the tablet in her hands.  “That’s the opening line to their 15 page manifesto. It goes into some pretty crazy stuff – the person who wrote this paint the Protheans like they’re some kind of Gods – with little to back it up. They do credit that without the acquisition of a piece of Dr. T’Soni’s research about 3 years ago, they would have never been able to make the connections they have made... you know, if that counts for anything.”

“It doesn’t.” Kaidan suddenly snarled before he turned to look at Liara with a sorrowful look. Whatever Tali had said had struck nerve with him – something he deeply regretted. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Um... excuse me. I think... I think I feel a migraine coming on – must have been from all the stuff from earlier.” He didn’t even wait from a response from anyone before he quickly stood, grabbed his bag, and made his way to the back of the plane and the bathroom.

As soon as Kaidan shut the door to the bathroom, Liara let out a sorrowful sigh. “I am... greatly sorry for that. I think, no, I am pretty sure I know how they acquired my research – we were low on funding and struggling to get more from the university, and someone Kaidan trusted decided she was going to try to help out and find a private sponsor, unfortunately...”

Shepard raised a hand to stop the doctor. It was obvious from her body language that the woman she was talking about was a very sore subject to bring up. “We don’t need the details behind that, doc.” Liara gave him a relieved smile and after giving her a slight nod to let her know it was no problem at all, he turned his attention back to Tali. “So, let’s just cut all this crazy talk about and get to the point – what do they want from this vault?”

Tali gave a nod of agreement about getting to the point. “Well... it’s not entirely clear because while they have theories like it’s a library or a collection of cultural artifacts, they have no clue what’s in it because they haven’t been able to get in it. But, they swear it will change the world.”

“Great...” Shepard let out a sarcastic laugh. “Sounds like we’re dealing with perfectly reasonable people who just wants to better the world.”

Across from Shepard, Liara raised a brow. “Shepard, I don’t think people who hire mercenaries to kidnap people are reasonable.” From how earnest her words sounded, it was clear she didn’t pick up

“Sure they are, Dr. T’Soni.” Garrus began to chime in, but his words were cut short by yet another smack in the head from Tali. He turned to look at the young woman with narrowed eyes. “You’re so abusive to me...”

“Well, maybe if you would stop thinking you’re funny when you’re being a jackass, I would stop hitting you.” Tali shot back.

“I not funny – I’m a laugh riot.”

“Единственное, что я могу получить смех из вас от плоских, как ваша задница.” The obvious insult came out of Tali’s mouth at lightning speed.

“Если вы думаете, моя задница это шутка, то почему не могли бы вы никогда не держи руки подальше от него?” Garrus’ Russian was a bit slower, a bit rougher, but what he said struck a nerve in Tali.

As the two began to bicker back and forth in Russian, Shepard let out a sigh as he turned to look at Dr. T’Soni. “They use to date...”

“That... explains a lot, actually.” Liara said as she took her eyes away from the growing fight on the opposite side of the plane and focused back on Shepard. “Are you going to try to stop them so we can continue on with this?”

Shepard shook his head. “Oh, no... I don’t have a death wish. Give them an hour or two and they’ll eventually die down.” He glanced back over at Tali and Garrus to see the young Russian woman choking the air in frustration, then looked back at Liara. “So... I think we’ve covered most of the bases, unless you have anything else you want to add...”

“Actually...” The doctor interrupted him, “...I do.” She picked up the folder containing the information from the ruins in Africa and held them out for Shepard to take. “Well, it’s not so much something I need to say as it is more like something you need to see – maps, photos, and terrain layouts of the island we’re going to.”

Shepard took the folder from the woman and began to flip through the pages, his eyes scanning over the images, until something caught his attention. “Casablanca is about 200 miles away from this place, but there are other islands closer with docks.”

Liara nodded. “Yes, I know. While Kaidan and Garrus were preparing to rescue you, Tali and I were going over a few things – we found out that members of the Awakening Cell were stationed at those ports. She suggested a much further location for us to ship off from.”

Shepard’s eyes rose from the folder in his hands. He couldn’t help but notice how she phased the last bit of what she said. “I’m assuming you and Tali are planning to tag along?” By the way Dr. T’Soni’s eyes shot away towards the window and the nervous way her body began to move, he knew that he guessed it right. He let out a sigh as he closed the folder and placed it onto the table. “Listen, Dr. T’Soni... I don’t want to put you into anymore danger than you’ve been exposed to already.”

“I know it will be dangerous.” The doctor’s gaze returned to Shepard’s, and in them he could see a spark of determination. “You have to understand, when I was a little girl, my father would take me into the study and the two of us would go through my grandfather’s old diaries and journals.” She picked up the book with her grandfather’s records of the Protheans in it. “This was my favorite one to go through, and what spurred me on to become an archeologist. Researching the Protheans has been my entire life, Shepard... I cannot just sit back this time when quite possibly the greatest discovery of the Prothean civilization is going to be made without me there, no matter how dangerous it can be.”

“Pride is a stupid thing to risk your life for.” Shepard said as he leaned forward.

“I don’t see you saying anything about Tali or Kaidan coming along with you.” The doctor’s tone rose slightly for a moment. She then shook her head. “But, no, this isn’t pride... this is just something I have to do.”

He let out a sigh. “Kaidan and Tali have proven themselves – and both would kill me if I tried to make them sit out anymore. You, on the other hand, Dr. T’Soni, I don’t know how you would be under-fire... I bet you don’t even know how to fire a gun.” Once again, Liara went silent, but this time, she didn’t take her eyes off of Shepard. “I mean, if you had some way of defending yourself, I might reconsider, but...”

The woman suddenly shot forward in attention. “I was one of the highest-ranked competitive archers in the world while I was in college, and I’ve kept up on it as a hobby. I can hit dead center from 70 yards.”

Shepard raised a hand. “Okay, let me stop you right there. Let’s ignore the fact you know how to use a bow, which isn’t exactly the best weapon to bring to a gunfight, and focus on the big thing here – would you be able to kill someone if you had to? Because, I’ll tell you this, not one of those mercenaries guarding the site will hesitate to put a bullet in your head.”

“I don’t know if I would be able to.” Liara replied with a hesitant tone. “But... I know the risks going into this, and I still want to go. This is just something I have to do, have to see. Even you must understand that – a desire to do something so strong you’re willing to face whatever comes your way. I know what risks lie before me and I don’t care. I have no plans on jumping in front of people to take a bullet, in fact, I’m going to try my hardest to stay out of the firefight at all costs, but I’m just not going to let you leave me is Casablanca or send me back to New York or someplace else.” 

While he did understand the feelings Liara was feeling right now – that deep, driving urge to do something that was important to you – Shepard did not want to expose the woman to more danger than she had been in already because he had a feeling it would greatly upset Kaidan. Dr. T’Soni was determined though, and he had a feeling she would try to find some way of getting to the island, even if it meant finding an independent charter boat to take her. Shepard brought his hands to his temples to rub out the headache that was starting to hit him, and hoped what he was about to say wouldn’t come to bite him in the ass. “Okay... you wanna go so badly? You’ll talk with Kaidan so you can tell him that this is all your crazy idea so he can be mad at you AND you’ll find your own weapons in the few hours it’ll take us to get a boat. Do those things and I won’t stop you from tagging along.”

Liara nodded her head. “Thank you, Shepard.”

He shook his head. “Don’t thank me; because I’m not letting you come, I’m just not stopping you.”

“I’m going to see how much longer until we land, so try to get some rest.” Shepard then stood up – he needed a bit of time to himself now to collect his thoughts, let all the information he learned sink in, and figure out if he just didn’t make a big mistake by not stopping the doctor from tagging along. He then made his way up to the cockpit and opened the divide to look at the pilot. “Hey... how’s everything up here?”

“Got a bit of a headwind,” The man turned his head around to reply “but it won’t be too much of a problem for this old girl; we’ll be in Casablanca in about 4 or 5 hours.”

Just then Shepard pointed to the empty co-pilot seat. “I know it’s going against like 5 or 6 regulations, but mind if I sit up here for a bit?”

“It’s actually 8, but, then again, so is illegally transporting firearms, but you’re not the first people who’ve hired me to be well-armed. Just be sure to close that divide – it’ll drown out that shouting match between your friends.” The pilot replied as he motioned that it was okay for Shepard to sit down. 

As Shepard sat down and relaxed in the mostly-quieter cockpit, he looked at the pilot. “I’m guessing you’ve got some fun stories from other interesting passengers. I gotta ask... how are we rating?

“I’ve flown for royalty, arms dealers, and quite possibly a drug lord or two, so, yeah, I’ve got some stories... not that I’ll tell you them, though. ” The other man laughed. “I will say, other than the guns, you guys seem pretty tame, so I’ll probably forget about all of you in like a week.”

“Oh, well... there go my hopes and dreams of being forever immortalized in a story.” Shepard jested, though underneath it he was rather pleased. The pilot must of have not overheard the discussion about the Protheans earlier, or if he did, he had enough of a brain not to talk about it... hopefully. Right now, though, Shepard needed to sit and think and rest, because he knew that in the coming days, big things were going to go down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RD1: "The only thing I get a laugh out of is that flat ass of yours."
> 
> RD2: "If you think my ass is a joke, why could you never keep your hands off of it?"


	10. The Night Before

Shepard and his companions had wasted no time in Casablanca, quickly procuring the supplies, additional weapons and ammo, and passage on a boat to the island. As soon as they had gathered at the docks, which also happened to be the same time Kaidan had finally relented on letting Liara joining the group after Garrus of all people bluntly told him to shut it and stop being a hypocrite, they boarded the chartered boat and were off into the sunset. Since it was going to take around 11 hours to reach the island they five had decided it was best to use this time to rest. Of course, Shepard had never been a man to sleep all too much. He had been asleep for about 3 hours before waking up, with everyone still sound asleep. Not wanting to disturb them, he quietly left the cabin him, Garrus, and Kaidan were sharing to go to the small dining hall in the hold of the ship to look over all the information Tali had found out about the island. There was a something – his gut maybe? – that was telling him to not just go into this thing half-cocked into this situation. He was going to be prepared, so that the five of them would be able to get to the vault safely. There Shepard hoped to find the answers to this crazy mess – what this mysterious civilization truly was and why this shadowy organization – Cerberus –  had gone through some drastic lengths to obtain the secrets of it.

Sitting in a pair of shorts with a six pack of beer and some chips at his side, Shepard had been pouring over maps and photos of the terrain, the layout of the campground in front of the Prothean structure, and number of mercenaries guarding the area trying to find any and every advantage he could when the sound of the door opening caught his attention.

“Why am I not surprised to find you up and pouring over things to make a plan?” A shirtless Garrus walked into the room, taking a chair beside his friend.

“Me? Make a plan? Why would I be doing something like that?” Shepard smiled as he put Tali’s tablet down and leaned back in his chair.

Garrus only shot him this look that told him to cut the bullshit.

A sigh escaped the treasure hunter’s mouth. The past week, jumping half of Europe, had been rather crazy and it was only right now that Shepard realized that this was the first time since everything all started it had just been him and his best friend in the same room alone together. “I know this is all pretty crazy – that the two of us should probably be on our way to Fiji right now to enjoy some sun and relaxation with what money we did get instead of getting past a small army to find out what this vault holds – but there’s just something about this...”

“Or someone?”

His friend’s words caught Shepard off-guard. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying that ever since Professor Alenko opened his mouth and started talking, I knew things were going to be more complicated than ‘go find thing and bring it back’ especially since you’ve had your eye on him, always worrying about his safety.” Garrus said as he reached for one of the beers on the table and cracked it open, taking a deep drink from it. “It’s almost funny how every time you run across someone who’s been so passionate about some aspect of the job they hire you for, Shepard, the more things always get more and more complicated. I mean, do you remember when you and I first met?”

Shepard couldn’t help but give a bit of an excited grin as he nodded. Almost 6 years ago, shortly after he had left the Spectres since he had grown tired as life as a hired gun for governments and corporations, Shepard had attempted to try his hand at private investigation. To his surprise, his first client was a headstrong and idealistic LAPD detective with a case that wasn’t trying to confirm a cheating spouse or a missing person. This detective had been suspended because he was “harassing” a doctor who was suspected in kidnapping then butchering people to sell their organs on the black market, yet there was never enough evidence to convict. Honestly, at first Shepard didn’t want to do a job like that – he had been trying to get away from some of the horrible things people were capable of doing while in his time with the Spectres, but it was the way the detective spoke, with such conviction, that made him relent. What had meant to be just simple recon turned into a car chase through the outskirts of the city to a massive warehouse complex where Shepard and the cop, who had showed up out of nowhere before the start of the job and insisted on coming, discovered several butchered bodies before they found and cornered the doctor. As the doctor began spouting off on how he was untouchable and the detective realizing how right the man he pursued was, Shepard uttered the words that became the start of a great partnership and even greater friendship. Word he never could forget.

“Just shoot him in the head already.” Shepard repeated in a sly, jovial tone what he had told Garrus to do all those years back, a massive grin on his face as he picked up the beer he had been drinking and leaned the bottle forward.

“Did it twice just to make sure that son of a bitch was dead.” Garrus tapped the neck of his bottle against Shepard’s before the two took a drink. “To think, I use to be so gung-ho about every little injustice in the world and believed the law would take care of it. Now... not so much.”

“THAT is bullshit, and we both know it.” Shepard called out his friend. “Or did you forget all those jobs that we intentionally botched because we got duped into stealing from the rightful owners or hoodwinked into smuggling things or we found out our employer was a sick, twisted freak?”

Garrus shrugged. “Hey, we’re human – we make mistakes like getting lost and winding back up at museum and having to ditch stuff to escape from police, or not securing the cargo properly and it just happened fall out of the boat.”

“And our bullets just happened to ‘mistakenly’ find their way into the bodies of a few drug lords and sick perverts?” Shepard arched a brow at his friend.

“Exactly.” The other man responded with a tip of his bottle before he took another swig. “And I stick around no matter what because someone has to fix your mistakes and save your ass when everything goes to hell.”

“Wow, I’m so lucky to have you save me constantly.” The sarcasm was dripping from Shepard’s words. “You’re like my white night.”

“Nah... I like stirring shit up too much to be one. Now, Ash, on the other hand... she was definitely the white knight of us three – always getting us to pop in to do those pro-bono jobs.” Garrus said with feigned irritation. “I mean, we were mercenaries – not the Mother Theresa squad.”

“Hey, she was no angel, and even she would say that.” Shepard spoke up. “More than a few of her bullets ‘mistakenly’ found their way into people too when they got on her bad side. Remember the chateau and how she just took out those kidnappers by herself?”

“Don’t remind me.” Garrus’ face cringed up. “Those idiots pissed her off so much to do that, the two of us were walking on eggshells for like three weeks after it because we were afraid Ash was still a little on the edge.”

The two men - the two friends - suddenly broke into a deep laugh that lasted for minutes. Part of it was the fact of how nice it was for the two to actually have a chance to have some time for themselves and relive a few memories of their past together, but the other part was to distract them from the bitter-sweetness of the memories of things too. Shepard knew that Garrus blamed himself as Shepard did himself for Ashley’s death for a long time. They went their separate ways for a while – Garrus off to Russia, while Shepard went somewhere special to him to think – but they found their way back together eventually. Ever since, they had veered away from being just hired guns, yet the danger and risk followed them into their rather successful new venture as “Relic Procurers”.

As the laughter died down, Garrus gave Shepard a serious look. “This is just about the craziest thing we’ve ever done.”

“More crazy than the time we were trying to take down that pirate gang in Panama?” Shepard asked as he arched a brow. “I mean there was a midget... with a chainsaw!”

Another laugh escaped Garrus’ throat. “Okay... maybe this is the _second_ craziest thing then. Even still...” He turned his face away to look at the folders and the tablet on the table, “...things are going to work out and all of us are going to get out of this just fine.”

Shepard let out a sigh, a hint of concern in his breath. “Let’s hope so.” He finished off the rest of his beer before he gave his friend a seriously look of his own. “You know, I wouldn’t be able to do this without you.”

“No, you couldn’t.” A cocky smile came across Garrus face. “Well... maybe you could, but it wouldn’t be the same – I just make everything more stylish.”

The two began laughing again, but this time their laugher was interrupted by the door to the small mess hall opening. Standing in the doorway in a purple oversized tee and a look of slight irritation on her face was Tali. “You realize the walls on this boat aren’t that thick, right?”

Shepard’s hand found it’s way to the back of his neck, a slight embarrassed look crossing his face as he started to feel back. “Sorry if we woke you. We didn’t wake Liara too, did we?”

Tali shook her head. “No, you didn’t wake anyone, you just threw of my game of Angry Birds with your distracting laughter.” She walked inside, grabbing a beer off the table and cracking it open, yet she didn’t drink it. Instead, she was just standing there with an look of deep thought on her face.

The look on the young woman’s face did not go unnoticed by Shepard. “Is something wrong, Tali?”

She shook her head. “No... nothing’s wrong. It’s just...” she lifted her gaze to look at Shepard, “...you think you could leave? There’s something I need to talk with Garrus about.”

Shepard nodded as he began to stand up. “Okay.” Despite Garrus shooting him a confused look, all he did was grabbed the handle to his mostly-gone case of beer and make his way through the opened door, being sure to close it behind him.

Shepard hadn’t even taken two steps when he found out thin the walls really were down in the hold when he heard Garrus’ voice rather clearly speak. “So, what is this about?”

“How you were an idiot for just leaving me in Russia.” Tali’s response made Shepard stop where he was standing. He didn’t want to eavesdrop, but he didn’t want the two to start another fight between the two. Those two getting angry at each other right now would be asking for disaster when they got to the island. But, interfering right now could be more disastrous, so Shepard just stood there, listening to see how it would play out and step in just in case.

“Tali, really this isn’t the time to start up another fight, but, I know you haven’t forgot, you were the one who gave me the ultimatum.”

“I’m not trying to start a fight, Garrus; we’ve been an each other’s throats since you showed back up at my apartment out of the blue with so many petty things so just let me finish, okay?”

There was a long silence before Garrus responded. “Okay.”

“You were an idiot for just leaving, but...” there was a long pause from the young woman. “...I was an idiot too for not realizing how you were so miserable being stuck in one place.”

The silence from Garrus was much shorter this time. “Tali, I... I wasn’t miserable with you.”

“But you were miserable trying to lead a normal life while trying to find a normal job. It’s taken me a while but now I remember the thing that made you who you were, and probably why you really started running around with the _organizatsiya_ , picking up odd-jobs – you’re an adventure. Not coming to me - not talking with me - was stupid of you, but I could have said something too... but I made the mistake of pushing you away in rage.”

“Well, you have always had a bit of a temper...” his words suddenly tapered off for a moment before he started talking again, but sounding as if he was being much more careful with his words. “...and I haven’t always been the best with serious talks. But...”

“’But’ what?” The concern and anticipation was hanging on the edge of the young woman’s voice.

“...all this time, I’ve never let myself forget how much of a mistake by leaving period. You may think you made some mistakes, but I made the biggest ones, and I’m... well, you deserve a lot better person than me.”

“I do... but I think I can settle for now until something better comes along...”

A bit of laughter from the young woman and Shepard knew that he had already listened in far too long. He began again to make his way back down the hall to give the two the privacy they deserved.  As he made his way down the hall, he decided to head back to his room and attempt to try to quietly finish off the case in bed before trying to attempt to get a little bit more rest. When Shepard reached the door though, before he had a chance to reach out to the handle, it opened wide.

“Kaidan. What are you doing up?” Shepard asked the man standing before him in tight grey briefs, a tank top, disheveled hair and a barely-awake look on his face.

The professor rubbed his eyes as he took a moment to process the question. “I, um... something just kind of woke me up.”

“It wasn’t me and Garrus, was it?” Shepard asked, a slight guilty look on his face.

Kaidan shot the man in front of him a confused look as he shook his head slowly. “It was... well, I think it was a bad dream, as dumb as it sounds. I’m not really sure, but now I’ve got this really dry throat, so I was on my way to go get like a glass of water or something from the mess.”

“That’s... probably not a good idea right now.” Shepard said as a stupid grin crossed his face as the conversation he overheard flashed back into his head for a moment. “If you’re thirsty, though, I’ve got some beer.” He lifted up the case in his hands up so the other man could see.

“Well, um.. that’s not the first thing I would have thought of grabbing.” Kaidan replied with an arched brow before shrugging as he turned back around to get out of the doorway to let the other man inside the room.

Shepard made his way into the small cabin and sat on the bottom bunk opposite of the one Kaidan was sitting on, pulled out two bottles, cracking the tops off before holding one out for Kaidan. The professor took a deep swig from the bottle, and after, as he pulled the lip of the bottle from his mouth, he smiled “Not what I normally drink when I have beer... but not bad.”

“Well then, Professor Alenko,” Shepard began in a playfully confident tone, “when this is all over, you’ll have to let me buy you what you do drink when all of us go out to celebrate getting out of this alive.”

The professor suddenly broke out into a low, raspy chuckle. Shepard went to ask what was so funny, but Kaidan raised his hand to stop him before the words could form from his lips. “Sorry... it’s just... how you said that we’ll get out of this with such confidence... I don’t doubt you a bit.”

Shepard shrugged shamelessly. “Well, when Dr. T’Soni was looking to hire me, I told her she was hiring the best.”

“And, back when I first met you in that café, I just thought you were some stupid thug.” Kaidan admitted as he took another swig from his beer before continuing on. “Hell, I thought that for a while actually – that I couldn’t trust you one bit. Now though...” he turned to look out of the porthole for a moment, completely silent as he stared out into the night sky in thought. A smile slowly crept across the Professor’s lips. “...now, it’s a completely different story.”

“What changed your opinion about me?” Shepard asked as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

The other man turned to look at Shepard, their eyes meeting one another. “I just kept watching you, honestly. I mean, like I said, I didn’t trust you so I just kept my eye on you. And, the more I watched, the more I started to think that, well... maybe my preconceived notions I had made before I even met you were way off, but still, something in me wasn’t letting me say I was wrong, like it was...”

“Your stubbornness got in the way.”

The professor took in a sharp breath as he reared back, feigning insult. “Way to insult a guy who’s admitting he was wrong.”

“Why do you think me saying you’re stubborn is an insult?” Shepard’s words were casual and honest. “I mean, if you haven’t noticed the company I’ve been keeping lately, stubbornness is pretty much the defining trait of us all... and it’s kinda amazing what enough sheer stubbornness can accomplish.”

The laugh that came out of Kaidan’s mouth was much deeper than before. “Well, if you put it that way, it sounds almost nice.” He was still smiling when he took another drink, but it soon faded and he began to tense up a bit in his shoulders.

“Something wrong, Kaidan?” Shepard asked, the sudden change in the other man’s body language too obvious to ignore.

“No... well, not exactly, it’s just...” the professor sat there for a moment, struggling to find the right words for his thoughts before he shook his head. “Just... never mind – it’s just too complicated. I’m sure you don’t care about something that happened a long time ago, and I also don’t want to make things embarrassing or awkward. I can just keep it to myself.”

“You just cant’ say something like that and expect me to not ask more.” Shepard scooted to the edge of the mattress, a concerned expression on his face. “I promise, no judging, no laughing, no nothing. Anything you ask, I’ll do because if this is something that’s weighing down on your mind, it’s not good to keep it pent up when we’re about to be in a dangerous situation.”

The professor sat there for a moment, thinking. Finally, he let out a sigh. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this...” he kicked back the rest of his beer, and, once it was finished, began to speak. “For years, all my life has been was this research – going back and forth from New York to Greece to go over the sites the Greek government would allow access to Dr. T’Soni and me. I loved it all, don’t get me wrong, but... something has been missing... something I use to have that I lost because of neglect and betrayal.”

“Rahna.” Shepard said quietly under his breath. He remembered clearly the way Kaidan had spoken with pain in his voice the name back at the café, the way his face looked so angry yet so sad. Then again on the plane to Casablanca, he had noticed the same face and the same tone again from Kaidan when Liara had mentioned how she thought she might know Cerberus had acquired portions of the journal. It wasn’t hard for Shepard to put some of the pieces together.

Kaidan gave a slow nod. “I met her when I was still a student of Liara’s going for my Masters at NYU. She was beautiful, intelligent and so passionate. The thing that caught me was tha she had this big, infectious smile that was so full of life. I was so afraid to ask her out for the longest time too... but, when I did... it was... well, it was good... really good. After Liara had offered me a position as a research assistant when she read one of my dissertation, Rahna supported – more like forced me- to take it.” A smile of mixed emotions came across the professor’s face. “She knew that this was my dream to work on something like this, and, for a while, things were good... great even. But then... I was offered a position as an Assistant Professor at NYU thanks to Liara’s influence – another thing Rahna insisted I take – but... that’s when things started to go downhill.”

The professor took a deep breath. It was obvious talking about this was hard for him, but right before Shepard was about to say something, Kaidan continued on. “I was gone all the time to Greece, I mean I offered all the time to bring her with me, but she insisted she should stay in New York since and knew that I would be busy with work all the time while I was there. But after a few months... every time I would come back for a few weeks, then get ready to set out again we started to have these stupid little fights. I knew she didn’t want me to go... but by then, I had become so engrossed with my work, that’s all I could think about half the time. But, even with all that... we still tried to make it work. It was tense, not the same as it used to be... but we still made a lot of good memories and being around her when things were good made me happy... I thought something was better than nothing, you know? Almost two years later now, I know that things were on their way to an end, and I should have ended it then... but I didn’t... and then _it_ happened a little over a year ago...“

“She sold some images of Dr. T’Soni’s journal.” Shepard spoke up for Kaidan as it was obvious the further the professor talked about his past, the more difficult it became for him to do so. “You don’t have to tell me this if you don’t want to, you know that, Kaidan.”

The other man shook his head. “No, Shepard... I do want to.” He took another deep breath, but it was obvious he needed more than that. Shepard passed his half-drank beer to the other man, Kaidan nodding in thanks before taking a few gulps from it before he started back up again. “There had been some budget cuts and we were short of funding to check out this site that, after everything went down, turned out to be a total bust. In the meantime, though Liara had been trying to call in some old favors to fund it and I was beyond stressed out because the two of us thought it would be a big break. Well, out of the blue one night Rahna swore she had a surprise that would help – she had found someone to fund the trip. When I asked how she did it, she started to clam up, making me press the issue all the more. I had barely raised my voice because she kept being invasive when she started up a fight again she normally did – yelling at me how all I cared about was my work. She then said someone had called for me a few days before because they had heard about the funding problems and they were willing to be our sponsors... thing was, I had already heard about this offer, but from Liara. These same people, who now I’m positive worked for Cerberus, had called up Dr. T’Soni a few days before, but when she told me about their stipulations – how they practically wanted to take control of mostly everything - she rejected it. Rahna, though... I guess she thought this would fix our strained relationship... anyways, she said told them she would talk with me about it, but they said the offer was only good for so long without some kind of good-faith effort, like a bit of data. So... she sent them some of my translations...” The professor suddenly slammed his fist against the bed and his voice became aggressive, full of rage. “I grabbed my jacket and wallet, went to the door and I told her when I was going to a friend’s place for a few days and that by the time I got back, I wanted all of her stuff gone. That was the angriest I’ve ever been in my life. I felt so betrayed...  I wanted to lash out - hit something! I didn’t, thank god, but that look was in my eye... and it must have really scared her because when I came back, all of her things were gone.”

Betrayal was a bitter pill to swallow, something Shepard was more than familiar with after having been doubled-crossed more times than he cared to count over the years, but that came with the lines of work he had been in. To have felt betrayed by someone you had thought you could trust, though? It was hard for Shepard to imagine what it must have felt like other than pure agonizing pain. “It must have hurt like hell.”

“It did, for a while...” Kaidan nodded as he started to loosen up a bit now that he had passed the hardest part of his story, yet there was still something odd about his body language – as if it was becoming more open the more he kept talking. “...but when you have work like I was doing – trying to find a lost culture and teaching – it was easy to become completely consumed by my work. There was some comfort in it, but... like I said, something was missing – that thing that got my heart pounding... my blood pulsing... that made life exciting again – but... a few days ago, I found something different and new that reignited the spark in me.”

A cocky smile came across Shepard’s face. “Well... getting shot at by and then running for your life from an insane killer and his band of mercenaries does tend to do that to you, and that’s even before the real fun part of infiltrating a camp full of professional scumbags to steal something. Trust me, I’m kinda an expert in the field of it.”

 Once again Kaidan’s body language shifted again, becoming more ridged, as a nervous smile came across his face. “Um... yeah... exactly.” He then suddenly and quickly rose from his bed. “I, um... I gotta hit the head... beer really passes through me.”

It was a blatant lie. As Kaidan went to try to rush out of the room, Shepard stood up and grabbed the other man’s shoulder to stop him. “Wait, Kaidan. What’s wrong?”

Still looking at the door, the professor shook his head. “It’s... it’s nothing, Shepard, I just really need to hit the head.”

“Bullshit – you were fine until I joked about getting shot at.” Shepard shot back. “Listen, if I said something that made you uncomfortable, I’m sorry, just don’t go running off with a half-assed lie.”

“You don’t have to apologize – I should.” Kaidan said as he turned around, freeing himself from Shepard’s hand, though he was now slowly walking backwards to the door. “I mean, I’m the one who started making assumptions... thinking one thing you did meant something completely different – it was just me making up mixed-signals I guess...”

“Mixed... signals?” Shepard said under his breath as Kaidan kept saying sorry and continuing his apologies. Suddenly, everything started clicking inside Shepard’s head – exactly why Kaidan had chosen to open up to him, what he had meant by finding something “different and new”, and why he was so nervous, so embarrassed right now. But, then, he began to realize that it had been more than that too – the looks of concern the two gave one another in Monaco... the apologies in Moscow... even the possibility of the yelling at one another in the ruins in Greece. It just had been so subtle and gradual, and he so focused on so many other things going on, that it had taken this long for things to register in his own head. A smile began to come across Shepard’s face.

 It went completely unnoticed by Kaidan though, who was still going on and on with his stumbling apology. “...I mean, hell, I don’t even know your first name, so... if we can just forget this all happened...”

“Kaidan.” Shepard took a step forward.

“...and never speak of it again...”

“Kaidan...” Another step.

“... and let everything go back to normal...”

“...KAIDAN!” Shepard’s voice raised a bit as he took one final step forward.

“...that’ll be...”

Kaidan didn’t have the chance to finish his sentence as Shepard leaned forward and kissed him. For a moment, the professor just stood there as Shepard’s lips wrapped around his, but then in a flash his hands found their way to the sides of Shepard’s head, his lips wrapping around the other man’s with a feverous aggression.

As his lips matched pace, Shepard pulled the professor closer, his arms wrapping around the other man’s waste, and led the two of them stumbling backwards onto one of the lower bunk beds, with Kaidan on top of him. Shepard’s hands began to travel from the small of Kaidan’s back in opposite directions – one going up his shirt to feel the hot skin along the professor’s spine, the other wrapping around and firmly grasping one side of Kaidan’s rather round, firm ass, causing the professor to intensify the aggression of his kisses, as well as stiffening in his loins against Shepard’s own growing stiffness.

As Shepard hands began to explore his backside, Kaidan’s own hands left the sides of the head of the man beneath him and made their way to his ribs and began to make their way down, fingers and palms going across the occasional old scar. Eventually, Kaidan’s hands found their way to the top of Shepard’s shorts. For a moment his hands rested on Shepard’s hips hesitantly before plunging down and under to grab ahold of the flesh of the treasure hunter’s rear, eliciting a similar response from the man beneath him as what happened when his own ass was grabbed.

The two men became more and more lost in one another’s lips and embrace as their hands pulling and tugging at what little clothing the two had on to allow the exploration of more and more of the flesh of one another’s backsides. But, when Shepard’s hand began to travel forward from Kaidan’s ass towards the front of his briefs, the man above him suddenly became a little ridged.

“Kaidan?” Shepard pulled back his lips and looked into the dark eyes he knew were a rich hazel in the light of the sun.

The professor turned his head away slightly. “I’m sorry, Shepard... I... I haven’t done this in a while...”

Shepard arched an eyebrow “You mean be with another guy? Well... it’s been like almost a year for me, but...”

“Well, that could have saved me a bit of brooding since Moscow if I knew you were into guys then...” Kaidan let out a little laugh, but then quickly shook his head. “Wait, focus, Kaidan... No, Shepard, I mean... with someone new. Rahna was...”

Kaidan didn’t have to say anything else – Shepard knew what he was getting at. He then reached around and pulled the pushed-down elastic of Kaidan’s briefs back over the plush curve of his ass. When the man above him gave him a confused look, Shepard leaned up and planted a soft, tender kiss on his swollen lips before flashing him a warm smile. “Hey... we’ll have plenty of time to ease into this after everything is over and when you’re ready for it.”

A surprised look crossed Kaidan’s face. “Once we get to the island – to the vault - something could happen... one of us could...” Worry had creeped upon his face, but he quickly shook it off. “No... no... I believe you when you said we’re getting through this alive, but... you and Garrus are probably going to go on to the next job and we might not have another chance to... you know...”

Shepard rolled his eyes and let out a sigh of feigned offence. “Oh, give me a little credit – after all this bullshit with Saren, I’m takin’ a fuckin’ 4 month vacation...” The teasing look soon disappeared to be replaced by a warm smile across Shepard’s face “...and I hear NYC is pretty this time of year - that, and I’m about 80% sure I’m not wanted for anything major in the US – and I just happen to know this really handsome NYU professor who I have a feeling wouldn’t mind me spending some time with him that doesn’t involve getting shot at.”

The corners of Kaidan’s lips began to pull back into a wide grin. “I think he would like that a lot.”

Shepard leaned forward again to gently kiss Kaidan again, the other man returning this time. And, as he laid back down, Shepard pulled Kaidan with him. “I guess, for now though, we can just lay here and talk a bit, make out a little more - copping the occasional feel - and just enjoy the moment until the sun comes up and we have to get ready.”

Kaidan nodded. “Yeah... that sounds like a good idea. Though... what if Garrus comes in?”

Shepard shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time he walked into a room with me in bed with a client or a guy, but I don’t think he’ll be showing up anytime soon before dawn – like I said when you tried leaving earlier, things might be awkward if anyone happens to go in there right now...”

It took a moment for it to register with Kaidan, but when it did, he nodded slowly. “Right... well, off of those two... you said something about talking?”

“And making out and grabbing asses...” Shepard replied playfully. “But... yeah... and I think I know the perfect thing to start off with.”

Kaidan arched one of his thick brows. “What’s that?”

“John... my name’s John.”


	11. The Island

Daybreak and come quick for Shepard as he and Kaidan laid in the bunk together undisturbed, but as soon as the light of the morning sun began to filter in through the porthole, they knew they had to get ready for the dangers this day had in store for them. They were in the middle of changing into their clothes – Shepard pulling on a dark grey henly while Kaidan was buttoning up his black dress shirt – when the door opened and Garrus walked in.

“And where have you been all night?” Shepard teased with a big grin on his face.

Garrus shrugged as he went for his bag on the ground and pulled out a grey shirt and a dark blue jacket. “Didn’t feel like comin’ back to the room – didn’t think it was a good idea – decided to blow off some steam instead.” He shot an odd glance at Shepard . “You seem... excited.”

“Well, we’re about to do something pretty stupid and dangerous – what’s not to be excited about?” Shepard flashed a wide grin at his friend.

“Riiiiiiight...” Garrus’ eyes narrowed at his friend, not believing a word out of his mouth, before shooting over in the direction of the professor.

Kaidan quickly buttoned one more button on his shirt “I...um... I’m gonna go check on Liara...” He then grabbed his bag and quickly made his way past Shepard and Garrus, out of the room, Garrus’ eyes not breaking their gaze until he was out of sight.

Garrus turned to look at Shepard and went to open his mouth, but Shepard cut him off. “No, we didn’t... well kinda, but not really...”

“Why not? We could die today.” Garrus said rather bluntly.

Shepard gave his friend a shrug. “Something to look forward to do after?” He didn’t feel the need to go into the details about last night, not that Garrus wouldn’t listen or care, but more because the other man would feel obligated to tease Shepard about it afterwards because that was the kind of friendship the two men shared. So, Shepard instead picked up his bag and gave Garrus a pat on the back. “Don’t drag your ass too much – we should try to get going as soon as we can.”

“Yeah, yeah...” Shepard heard Garrus reply dismissively as he left the room.

Shepard made his way above deck and to the port side of the ship. There was a small boat was waiting to be hoisted over the side for him and his companions to take to the island that was now visible in the distance. Even from nearly 7 miles away, the island looked massive, thanks in part to the large mountain in the center of it – the mountain that just happened to be where the Vault was located. As he began to ready the boat for launch, he looked off to the east where the sun had barely begun to break over the horizon, causing the entire sea before him to begin glistening brightly from the light, something he planned to use to help mask their approach... if they left soon that is.

Moments later, Shepard was more than a little surprised to see Tali in a mostly black outfit, besides her purple hoodie, come running in a mad dash with Dr. T’Soni, in a green jacket and black pants, with Garrus and Kaidan on the two women’s heels carrying almost all the supplies and weapons.

“Нам необходимо спешите!” Tali shouted as she reached Shepard’s side and threw her bag into the boat. “We need to hurry!”

The young woman looked alarmed and out-of-breath. Shepard raised a hand to make her stop and let her know to breath. “What’s going on?”

“Saren.” The growl that came out of Garrus’ mouth was equal parts anger and anticipation. “Knew that blast wouldn’t take him out.” It honestly came to no surprise to Shepard either that the mercenary had survived the explosion.

Clearly irritated that the olive-skinned man cut her off, Tali shoved Garrus a bit out of the way and continued on. “I bugged the Synthetic Insights systems and satellites, you know, just in case. Well, when I went to bed, I had no alerts, but, while I was changing this morning, it was lit up like menorah.  Cerberus ordered him to get to the island ASAP.”

 “So... Cerberus tracked us?” That was not a possiblitiy Shepard liked. “Did they mention to Saren anything about us?”

“Well, if they did track us down, they didn’t tell Saren.” Tali shook her head. “Still, he should be boarding a helicopter from a nearby island soon. We need to get going NOW if we’re going to try to get to the island without possibly being seen.”

Shepard nodded in agreement, and, with that, no one wasted any time in loading up the boat and launching off with Garrus at the wheel. Almost an hour later, the five found themselves pulling into a secluded cove that Shepard had charted out that gave them the best chance of not being detected. When they de-boarded, the women and Kaidan began to ready some of the supplies for traversing the thick jungle as Shepard and Garrus tied up and hid the boat the best they could.

When Shepard and Garrus came back to the other three, Kaidan was in the middle of strapping in his two handguns into his shoulder holsters. “So, how much of this jungle do we have to trek?”

“The maps said the dig site is at the base mountain nearly on the other side.” Shepard replied as he pulled out a .44 magnum.  “So... I say it’s about 4-5 miles.”

“Well then... let’s don’t drag our asses.” Ever since finding out that Saren was on his way, Garrus had seemed a little more than eager. In the time it had taken Shepard to pull out his gun and ammo, he had already armed himself with his rifle and sidearm and was begun to make his way towards the jungle.

“If you keep going that way, it’ll take us longer.” Tali swiftly walked up beside Garrus and put a hand on his shoulder. She then pointed in the opposite direction the man was heading. “The basecamp is the that way, genius.”

Garrus coughed, embarrassed. “Oh... I, um... well, wouldn’t it be smarter to go the long way?”

Shepard just laughed as he picked up one of the bags and slid it on. “Come on, I’ll lead the way – I was reading the maps half the night, anyhow.” Pulling out a machete that was strapped to the bag on his back, he began to head towards the edge of the jungle that would lead to the excavation site. The others were quick to follow behind Shepard, with Garrus bringing up the rear. 

As they near the tree line, suddenly Garrus froze in place for just a second before he shouted as he shot off towards the jungle. “RUN! Everybody get to the trees, NOW!”

Shepard didn’t question Garrus, nor did anyone else, but about halfway to the tree line he heard it – the faint sound of a helicopter approaching from the distance, and it only caused him and everyone else to pick up their pace.

They just barely made it under the cover of the trees when, moments later, everyone heard the sounds of the helicopter pass overhead.

“Do you think... he saw us?” Liara asked both worried and nearly out of breath.

Shepard shrugged. “I don’t know... but if we hear it swing around and the jungle catches fire...”

“Please tell me that’s a joke, Shepard.” Kaidan said as he looked into Shepard’s eyes. Unfortunately, the look Shepard returned did not give Kaidan the answer he wanted to hear.“It’s not... is it?”

Shepard took in one last deep breath before beginning to walk further in to the jungle, machete in hand. “Alright, catch your breaths while I start clearing the way. And, be ready for a long, long walk.”

Trekking through the jungle proved hard and slow right at the start. The overgrowth had started off thick just a few feet from the tree line and only got thicker going in. Footing was hard to come by due to the ground being soft, uneven or both. Also making the trek more difficult was the flora and fauna native to the island. When they had chartered the boat for passage, the captain, after realizing they were serious about coming to the island, had told them many dangerous plants and animals called this jungle home. He had emphatically suggested they cover up as much of their bodies as possible to reduce any exposure to anything, hence why the five were fully covered in a tropical jungle in the middle of summer, which had not helped to aid them beyond that tiny point. Regardless of the difficulty the jungle was proving to be, though, the five kept pushing forward and deeper towards the excavation site near the island’s center.

Sometime around noon and about midway to the Vault camp, the jungle began to ease up on them finally, but as the underbrush began to clear, and the trees became packed thinner, ruined shambles of brick and stone began to litter the landscape, but those shambles began to transform into walls and pillars overgrown with vines and plants, and then, finally moss-covered buildings. More chunks of stone began appearing on the ground as well – some fallen, some laid out long ago – breaking up the dirt here and there. Much like how jumbled, broken shambles had turned into buildings though, these stones on the ground soon became roads. Though on the ship Liara had informed them of ruins scattered throughout the island – before Cerberus had come, the natives of the island had made their homes in the husks of the civilization the Protheans had left behind, but the arrival of Saren’s his men almost two years ago had quickly put an end to that. Signs of life – and the deaths of – the natives were all about. It was an eerie sight... somewhat uncomfortable even, and made Shepard, and, from their body language the others too, just want to get the hell past it all. Even Liara and Kaidan, who had spent years of their lives trying to find any sign of the Prothean culture and, under any other circumstance, would have been drooling over everything around them, only kept making the occasional pause to take in a sight or two before hurrying on past the graveyard the village had become once again.

Thankfully crossing through the ruined city the Jungle had spent thousands of years reclaiming proved to be not rather quick, with the added benefit of allowing Shepard and the others to make up some of the time lost from cutting their way through underbrush earlier. They left the dead village on one of the remnants of the old Prothean roads. While the forest had grown through and around it, it was still much easier to traverse than the path they had to carve out of the jungle in the morning, as well as allowed the five to regain some of the strength they had spent because of it.

As time passed as they made their way further and further down the old road, the more signs of them nearing the Cerberus camp appeared. The most obvious sign were cut-down trees and bullets peppering the trees. There were also some other signs of the mercenaries, such as old traps and garbage, but everything Shepard and Garrus and Kaidan noticed were obviously old. Next came the silence from the wildlife from within the jungle, and soon after a smell that wasn’t just quite right – a wounded earthy smell that began to overtake the aroma of plants and wetness.

It was when the sounds of heavy equipment from off in the distance became audible that Shepard held up a hand for the party to stop their advancement and leave the road for the cover of the Jungle. About a hundred feet away from the road, he turned to Tali. “I need the map.” The young Russian woman quickly pulled out her custom built phone, fiddled with a few things on it, then handed it to Shepard, as the others gathered around.

“That dot is where we are.” Tali pointed out on the satellite map before pressing something in the corner, causing an updated image with the camp visible to appear.

Shepard then pointed out to a spot a small distance away from where they were. “We’ll scope the place out from here – see how busy everything is before me, Kaidan, and Tali go in.” Garrus looked like he was about to say something when Shepard raised his hand to stop him. “I know, you want to go down there too, and you’re not thrilled with the idea of me brining Tali along, but you’ll be better use to everyone in a good sniping position where you can keep us all safe.” He then turned to look at Liara. “Same for you, Dr. T’Soni - you said you were good with a bow, so now you can prove it. You’ll have a good line of sight and range from that ridge. I just hope...”

“I believe I can do what is necessary if the situation deems me to do so.” The doctor had known that he was about to bring up how she had never been in a situation she might be forced to kill someone.

“Okay.” Shepard wouldn’t lie and say he had his worries about the doctor’s abilities to kill someone, but he had to trust her now, just as she, and everyone else, trusted him.  With that, he led them to the ridge that overlooked the camp.

The site had been hollowed out from the earth by the heavy machinery in the massive hole – piles of excavated dirt and clay as well carelessly discarded trees were visible off in a section of the jungle that had been clear-cut – to reveal more ruins of ancient Prothean structures. Tents and semi-permanent structures were littered throughout the grounds around the shambled remaining walls and old stone streets. There were a few small jeeps currently parked and, near what seemed to be the main structure, was a helicopter on a makeshift helipad. Walking about the area many people – a lot of men and women were dressed rather casually, but it seemed that even more were dressed in all black and web gear, holding guns – about 20 more of the mercenaries than they had anticipated, not including ones that could be off somewhere else out-of-sight.

“Is this a dig site or a prison?!” Kaidan exclaimed in a hushed tone at the sight of all of the mercenaries.

“Shadowy organization and Saren being involved? My guess is a little bit of both.” Shepard replied.

“Hey... looks like something nasty is going on down there by the hole in the mountain.” Garrus exclaimed in a whisper as he unslung his rifle, fell to one knee and took sight. “Yeah... some fat guy is raising a ruckus at someone while some woman is trying to keep him calm. Wish I could read lips...”

Shepard quickly retrieved his binoculars from his bag and looked at where his friend had mentioned. The rather rotund man was bright red in the face from anger and yelling up a storm. The expression on his face was so exaggerated from rage, it was almost too hard for Shepard to pick up on what the man was saying. For the benefits of the others around him, Shepard began to quietly speak outloud the angry man’s words. “You can’t do this... You’ve been paid to keep us safe not do this... Yes, I will call our employer... Stop calling him the illusive man... I don’t care if we don’t know his real name, he’s paying all of us good money – you probably even better than me you bloody barbarian...” It became clear then exactly who the red-faced man was yelling at.

“What is Saren doing to cause that man to threaten him?” Tali asked.

Shepard was wondering that exact same thing as he continued on to read the lips of the red-faced man. “You were just doing your job anyways... Who cares if something you didn’t plan happens – that’s the kind of line of work you’re in anyways... If you want more money, you should have said so to our employer... Well, that’s your problem not mine...” Suddenly, a look of fear came across the man’s face, and his lips began to wobble in fear as he began to plead for his life.

 It was too late though. The sound of the gunshot rang out through the entire area. The red-faced man fell lifelessly to the ground while the woman who had been trying to restrain him fell to her knees in tears. Two of Saren’s men stomped up beside her, grabbed her by the arms and began to drag her away towards the main building. In the rest of the camp, all the people walking about stopped. The ones working the site seemed to stand in-place out of fear, while the mercenaries, on the other hand brought up their arms and began to fire. In seconds, the excavation site transformed into a bloodbath as the mercenaries started chasing down the fleeing workers.

Liara suddenly turned her face away. “Oh my God... what kind of monsters are those men?”

Though he couldn’t of have known how things would have gone down today, Shepard hadn’t been expecting to stop another one of Saren’s massacres. Flashbacks of times long past came flooding into his mind and a rage began to flame within him. “Rabid dogs that are finally going to be put down today.” Shepard said as he dropped his binoculars and pulled out his gun as his attention turned to his friend and the doctor. “Garrus, Liara... stay low and give us support – don’t draw attention to yourselves for as long as you can try. If I need you two I... figure out some way to message you that doesn’t involve me dying.” He then turned to the other two. “Kaidan, Tali... let’s go!”

The two quickly filed in behind Shepard as he started to lead the way down a secluded path to the pit below, but when Garrus held up a hand, the three paused. “Tali... stay safe down there.”

“I can take care of myself Garrus.” With a swift pump and serious face Tali loaded a shell into the barrel of her shotgun. Then, a warm smile crossed her lips. “Плюс, у меня моя архангела по поддержанию мира глаза на меня.”

With the goodbye out of the way, she, Kaidan, and Shepard began their decent down. When they reached the bottom, the three quickly took cover behind one of the stone walls. Sitting there, Kaidan looked at Shepard. “So... what’s the plan?”

“I’ll take point, you take rear. Let’s keep things quiet as long as we can and let’s kill anyone with a gun that isn’t us.” Shepard replied. “I know we didn’t come here for this, but let’s try to save as many of the workers as we can as we shoot our way up to the main building – I think that woman they dragged there might be able to give us an idea what the hell is going on.”

With a nod, Kaidan pulled out both of his guns from their holsters. “Saren is a sick bastard – let’s stop these thugs from killing anyone else.”

Shepard lead the way, the three dashing from point of cover to point of cover, slowly inching their way in deeper and deeper into the camp. A good bit of the way inside, as Shepard peered around a corner, he caught sight of two of the mercenaries making their way towards the three. In a low, almost inaudible voice, Shepard spoke to Tali. “Stay down.” He then looked at Kaidan. Since the professor was familiar with tactical hand signals, he motioned at Kaidan the amount of people coming their way and to go around to the other side of the wall so that he could get one from behind, and Shepard would attack the other one right after.

As soon as the professor darted off, Shepard pulled out a combat knife he had strapped to his leg while he had dressed that morning and slowly inched into a standing position, all the while listening to the sounds of the approaching mercenaries. When he heard the sound of one of the men being caught off-guard by the professor, he suddenly lunged around the corner, catching sight of the mercenary reading to fire on the man who had just bashed in the head of the other thug with a rock, and then driving his knife right into the mercenary’s chest.

As the second mercenary fell lifelessly to the ground, Shepard saw a small group of rounding around the corner. Neither him or Kaidan had time to run back into cover, and, as the mercenaries were just noticing them, Shepard quickly pulled out his .44 and opened fire. The powerful gun in his hand unleashed a massive boom with each powerful but slowly-fired shot. Kaidan had quickly pulled one of his own guns and began to rapidly unload it in the direction of the mercenaries. The two of them quickly took down the small group of Saren’s men and then re-joined Tali in cover.

“There goes the element of surprise.” Tali said as Shepard and Kaidan rejoined her.

Shepard let out a quick breath. “Well... we got further in than I thought we would before they noticed.”

“How long do you think we’ve got until they’re on us?” Kaidan asked as he reloaded the clip in his gun.

“Most of Saren’s men were located around the main building.” Shepard thought out loud. “I think there were only about 15 or so walking in this part of the camp. Well... 10 now. I don’t think we’ll get swarmed just yet.”

The shouts of mercenaries approaching from the distance made Shepard’s attention turn away from his companions for a moment. “We can’t sit in this spot forever – we push forward though them.”

The three crouched down again and rushed to a spot that gave them a better firing window. When the voices of the mercenaries were closer, Shepard and Kaidan popped up quickly and as soon as the black-clad butchers were in their sights, began to unleash a storm of bullets, taking down a few of them before taking back cover just in time to avoid the storm of bullets that suddenly shot over their heads.

As Shepard and Kaidan reloaded, Shepard heard the voice of one of the mercenaries yelling into a radio over the sound of suppressive gunfire. “We’ve got two men with guns in the southwest corner – they just took down three of us and we’ve got them pinned, send...”

The mercenary’s words were suddenly cut short, replaced by a curdling death sound as he fell to the ground. Seconds later, the sound of another man being shot and falling caused the gunfire holding down Shepard, Kaidan, and Tali stopped for a moment as someone shouted “SNIPER!”

Shepard could almost see the pleased look on Garrus’ face from his secluded perch on the ridge, though, in all honestly, he really wished his friend would had waited just a bit longer before joining the fray. Wasting no time on now-pointless thoughts, Shepard, once again joined by just Kaidan, popped back up and fired off a few more rounds into the mercenaries before them, the two men quickly taking the rest out before the three began to push in deeper into the camp. Though he knew more men would be atop of them soon – no, because more men would be on top of them soon – Shepard lead the other two with him carefully through the ruins that the camp was built in, trying his hardest in making sure the ridge Garrus was perched at had an unobstructed view of where he was at. Occasionally, a shot would ring out from above, letting Shepard know that Garrus was thinning out the horde of bloodthirsty killers that were heading their way.

Movement out of the corner of Shepard’s eye suddenly caught his attention. Gun at the ready, he looked over to see a mostly-intact building on the other side of the old stone street. As he stared into the hollowed-out ruin, he could feel something in the shadows staring back at him.

“What’s going on, Shepard?” Tali asked. “That look on you face...”

“I think I found some survivors.” He then looked in the direction of the cliff, positive that he was still in Garrus’ sights. In their years of work together, he had taught Garrus almost all the handsignals he knew, so he knew his friend would understand that the gestures he was making now meant that he found some workers and was going to try to get the out of there. He then turned to Kaidan and Tali. “Cover my back.” Without another word, he dashed across the street and into the building.

As soon as he got inside, someone had almost hit him in the face with a pipe, but Shepard knew that the workers were going to be scared and afraid and try to protect themselves at all costs, and had been ready for something. Yanking the pipe out of the middle-aged man’s hands, Shepard scanned the room and noticed three other men, on bleeding from the shoulder and leg, and two women, all of them firmly in the clutches of fear. He knew he needed to get them to trust him. As he put his gun away and dropped the pipe, Shepard calmly said. “Relax! Relax... I’m here to help you.”

“Who are you?!” The middle-aged man who had almost hit Shepard with the pipe demanded. “You’re not a work and you don’t look like any of those hired guns killing all our friends!”

Never one for subtlety, Shepard just told the outright truth. “Name’s Shepard – I did come here intending to steal back what got stolen from me and then peek around and take whatever was good in that vault and take whatever I wanted since your big boss completely screwed up a perfectly easy job of mine by having Saren kidnap my employer and then nearly kill me in a really, _really_ old library... of course, that plan got shot to shit – no offense – the moment Saren put a bullet into Red-face Rotundo. Now it’s get you out all out of here while I go and kill that son of a bitch.”

“Doctor Droyas is dead?!” One of the women gasped. “What about Doctor Thanoptis?”

Shepard remembered Drs. Droyas and Thanoptis were the two project leads from the files Tali had recovered. “Well, I’m not entirely sure who she is, but if she was always by Dr. Droyas’ side, bright blond hair... they dragged her into the big building by the helipad. I know Saren – if he didn’t kill her right then and there, he’s going to do it slowly...” there was a sudden gasp of shock from the woman, interrupting him. “Don’t worry – he won’t do anything until he gets what he wants – which I’m going to assume is whatever the hell is in that Vault.” He turned back to the middle-aged man. “You wouldn’t happen to know what’s in there.”

“Umm... no.” The man replied.

Shepard let out a frustrated sight. “Of course it wouldn’t be that easy – it’s never that easy.” He then peered back outside and looked down the old road, seeing no signs of Saren’s men at the moment – something that made him nervous. It was also his best opportunity on getting these six out of here. “Alright, I’ve got a friend covering us on the southeast ridge – I know you’ve got an injured friend, but all of you need to head up there as fast as you can and then just run and run deep into the jungle and hide.”

“But...” The man tried to protest.

“Yeah, deadly things, I know – I’ve heard.” Shepard dismissed. “You could defiantly die here a bloody death or you could risk the jungle – take your pick, because this spot isn’t going to keep you safe forever.”

The group of workers only hesitated for a moment longer before they all seemed to nod one-by-one, agreeing to what Shepard told them to do. One more time, he checked to find the coast was clear, and then filed them all out one-by-one – except for the injured man who needed help from one of his friends to move – having them dart across the street to where Tali and Kaidan were still on-guard. The last person was the middle-aged man, but, before he went to dart across the road, Shepard put a hand on his shoulder to stop him for a moment. “Keep to that side and stay low, and you should all be safe.” He was about to let him when something in his gut told him something was going on because how quiet everything was... and that he might need Garrus down here.  It would mean losing the advantage of having him as a sniper, but something within Shepard told him it was a risk he had to take. “Hey... when you get up there, tell the man and the woman there to make their way down. If the guy up there says anything, tell him ‘Panama three years ago’. He’ll know exactly what it means.” After the man crossed the street and joined his fellow workers, Shepard watched the small group begin to make their way through the section of the camp he had cut through until they were out of sight before he hopped back across the street to join Kaidan and Tali.

As soon as Shepard was by their sides again, Kaidan spoke up. “Hey... something isn’t right... it’s been really quiet for a while... too quiet. I haven’t even heard Garrus shoot for a while now.”

“I know... and I don’t like it.” Shepard agreed. “I told one of the workers to tell Garrus and Liara to join us.” Kaidan went to protest, but Shepard raised his hands. “It’s that, let Liara stay up there by herself or let her go with the people who work for the shady organization.”

“...I see your point.” The professor was reluctant to admit it though.

“So, do we wait for them, or what?” Tali asked.

Shepard shook his head. “No... I don’t think it’s good to sit in one spot for too long, even with it being this quiet. We...”

The sound of an approaching vehicle suddenly cut through the air, followed by shot after shot from Garrus’ gun, but, whatever Shepard’s partner was trying to do, it wasn’t working and the sound of the vehicle got closer and closer. Shepard grabbed his companions by their arms and started to pull them to a section of broken wall. “Get to cover! Move!”

The three had just hopped over the section of wall to duck behind when the truck slid to a stop at an angle and men unloaded from the back to unleash a storm of bullets flew in their direction.

“We’ve got them pinned and the sniper blocked! And they’ve got nowhere to go!” One of the mercenaries shouted. “They’re dead now!”

An amused smirk broke across Tali’s face as she pulled off her bag and began to rummage through it. “Буксующая глупцы.”

The look on the young Russian woman’s face did not go unnoticed by Shepard. “Tali... you’re scaring me.” When Tali pulled out two frag grenades, the concern vanished though. “Tali... I could kiss you right now.”

“What?! You mean you didn’t bring any grenades?” She was genuinely shocked at Shepard’s response.

A nervous look crossed the treasure hunter’s face. “Well... last time I did around Prothean ruins, Kaidan kinda got a bit pissed at me... I thought it wouldn’t have been a good idea this time.”

Kaidan suddenly reached over Shepard and grabbed one of the grenades from her hands. “Screw the better part of caution – I don’t feel like dying right now.” He pulled the pin and lobbed it over the wall.

Though the mercenaries shouted to hide for cover, it was in vain. When the grenade went off, the sound of the mercenaries being struck by the shrapnel filled the air. Instead of popping up to shoot at the others, Tali took the initiative to throw the second grenade over the wall, striking the group of already injured and dying mercenaries with another crippling blast.

Shepard got back to his feet in a crotched position. “We can’t stay here – run over to that other wall why they’re still recovering!” He pushed Tali and Kaidan in the direction he pointed while he popped up and began to fire off rounds from his magnum again at any of the mercenaries still standing or alive to draw any fire at him, allowing them to round a corner to a spot that had better cover.

As he crotched back down to quickly reload, there was the sudden sound of gunfire from where the other two had run off to. “Kaidan! Tali!” Shepard popped up quickly and began to dash off in the direction where he had just sent the two, barely dodging the fire of the mercenaries by the truck. As he rounded the corner where they had disappeared to, he saw them struggling with two mercenaries who had apparently been waiting in-ambush. Tali, with her petite frame, was at a clear disadvantage against the man who had her in restrained in his arms, though it didn’t stop her one bit from struggling and clawing at his arms. Kaidan was faring better, but not by much – he was in a losing struggle for control of the gun in the hand of the other mercenary. There was also an obvious wet-spot that could only be blood on the professor’s upper arm.

“Kaidan!” Shepard charged at the mercenary the wounded professor was struggling against, but didn’t get too far – a third one jumped out from behind a shambled pillar and punched Shepard square in the face, sending the treasure hunter falling back and hitting the ground. Before he hand a chance to recover, the third mercenary was on top of him, punching and kicking him into submission. When he was lifted up from the ground, finally, Kaidan had been wrestled into submission and the surviving mercenaries from the truck had joined the three ambushers.

“Let’s kill them now!” one of the mercs shouted as he pulled out his knife.

“No!” the large man who had caught Tali barked. “Saren’s orders – he wants these three alive for some fun... the sniper on the other hand.” A twisted smile crossed his face. “Destroy the entire southwest ridge.” With that, he ordered the others to restrained Shepard, Kaidan, and Tali, and then to follow his lead as he lead the group out of the ambush site. As they all passed the truck that the mercenaries had ridden in, Shepard saw men pulling out six RPGs. Moments later, after they were well on their way to Saren, they all could hear the fire and impact against the earth of where Garrus had been perched, and he could only hope that those workers had gotten up there in time to tell Garrus to head down.

 Shepard didn’t have much time to worry though, as minutes later, they were near the main building of the camp and, pacing back and forth underneath the cover of a tent, was Saren.

“Why am I not surprised you’re behind this, Shepard.” Saren snarled as he stopped in his tracks and stared at his prisoners with a twisted expression of anger.

“I see you still like butchering people like you did at Akuze.” Shepard shot back. The slaughter that Saren led on the small Eastern European village just to kill get one target had been one of Saren’s most infamous missions with the Spectres. “What made you do it this time? They bought you the wrong shade of hair dye? They didn’t want to share their cookies? Oh, I know... no one invited you to the company dance.”

Saren charged out from underneath the tent and struck Shepard in his bloody and slightly swollen face, nocking him down to the ground. “You’ve never been funny, Shepard, so just stop.” He then turned to one of his men. “Throw the girl in with Dr. Thanoptis – I’m going to have fun with her later. As for the professor...” He then walked over towards, Kaidan, pulling his gun out and placing it into the restrained man’s face. “...he could be useful. Take him down to the vault door and see if he can’t use the key to open it.” Another twisted smile crossed Saren’s thin lips. “Oh, Professor, just so you know, I did a little checking up on you – if you don’t cooperate, not only will I kill you, I’ll kill the charming Mr. and Mrs. Alenko who have this quaint little house with the rather lovely view of English Bay.”

“You bastard!” Kaidan snarled as two of the mercenaries began to drag him away towards the large hole that lead beneath the mountain.

Once both Tali and Kaidan were out of sight, Saren made his way over to Shepard and pulled him up from the ground. “You know, all this time over all these years, it seems I’ve always had you right where I’ve wanted you and _something_ just always happens that makes me have to step away for some reason or another, and you’ve always somehow managed to escape.” He put his gun to Shepard’s head as a derangedly pleased smile engulfed his face. “Well... this time I won’t repeat past mistakes... I’m going to kill you here and now and then I’m going to take whatever the hell is in that vault and sell it off to the highest bidder. So, enjoy these last few seconds knowing I’m going to kill your friends and then go on to live as a very, _very_ rich man.”

**  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RD1: "We need to hurry!"
> 
> RD2: "Plus, I've got my Archangel watching over me."


	12. Beneath the Mountain

They say the moments before you die that your life flashes before you. Kneeling in front of Saren with a gun to his head and surrounded by mercenaries egging their leader, his friend and the doctor possibly dead, another friend dragged off to await a fate of unknown horrors, and the man he had slowly fallen for over these past few days together being used to fuel a madman’s petty quest for money and power before being killed as well – there were many things going through Shepard’s mind at this moment, but his life was not one of them. His sky blue eyes full of defiance locked with the dull, cold, rage-filled grey-blue’s of the man with the gun to his head.

“So, enjoy these last few seconds knowing I’m going to kill your friends and then go on to live as a very, _very_ rich man.” Saren dug the barrel of the gun into Shepard’s forehead as if he was trying to push through flesh and bone to make absolutely sure the bullet when through, his deranged, victorious smile growing ever larger as he did. It did nothing to waver the treasure hunter’s defiance though, and that seemed to fuel to the fire within Saren.

The next thing Shepard expected to hear was the clicking of the mechanisms in the gun the moment before firing. What came instead was a low thwump, followed by Saren’s eyes opening wide. Pain suddenly had taken root within those eyes now, just as the feeling of metal falling away from Shepard’s forehead finally caused the treasure hunter to break his gaze and see the cause of Saren’s pain – sticking out of his left forearm was a long, thin metal shaft that had gone almost but not quite all the way through. Saren let out a cry of pain. The mercenaries shot into alarm. And Shepard knew – knew that now was no time to think – only time to run to cover.

Thanking for the well-timed shot from the doctor’s bow and that, in all probability both she and Garrus were saf, Shepard quickly jumped to his feet and made a beeline at a large pile of metal and hard plastic crates as someone shouted “Stop him!” from behind. Gunfire began to creep up on his heels. Just as it was inches away from him, though, he leapt over and dove for cover behind one of the crates. Once he was safely behind cover, it dawned on him he was trapped and had nowhere else to go, so unless someone else had a plan, he was screwed.

There was a sudden loud scream of pain, followed by Saren shouting out “That has to be Vakarian! No one else is stupid enough to try something like that! Get on the roofs! Find him! I what his head!” The rage in the mercenary’s voice was overflowing. That rage-filled voice then shot in the direction of Shepard, and as sounds of heavy footsteps made their way towards the pile of crates, it sounded more and more furious. “You think you can get away from me, Shepard? I’ve got you surrounded – there’s nowhere to go and the only person who can help you is about to be dead.”

“I wouldn’t bet on that, Saren.” A familiar voice to Shepard cried out, from a different direction than the arrow had come from. Shepard peered over the side towards the main building of the campsite to see Garrus, blood covering the entire right side of his face, and Tali standing at opened windows on the top floor, both with a mercenary’s assault rifle in their hands. Without another word, the two companions of Shepard opened fire on the group of off-guard mercenaries.

With the perfectly-timed rescue from his friends and Saren and his men distracted by the bullets raining down on them, the path to the main building was clear so that Shepard had the perfect chance to hop to his feet and make a 20 yard beeline dash to safety. As he ran, he heard Saren shouting out from behind him, followed by the sound of rapid fire from the mercenary’s handgun. Bullets whizzed by, not hitting their mark, but as the sound of the last bullet rang out, barely a second later Shepard felt a sudden stinging sensation from him left arm. He didn’t have time to stop to see though – not yet. As he neared the building, a burst of adrenaline kicked in, giving him that extra boost to leap forward and crash through one of the lower floor’s windows shoulder-first. It was a rough landing on the other side as Shepard crashed down onto the hard floor now covered in glass and pain filled his body – jumping through a window with his hand bound never had been a fun experience.

“Are you okay?!” A scared, unfamiliar voice came from somewhere to Shepard’s right. Moments later, the face that the voice belonged to came into sight – the slightly tanned dark-haired woman whom Saren had dragged inside the building after shooting the large red-faced man.

“Other than the cuts and a gunshot to my arm? Probably bruised a rib or two.” Shepard said as he tried to move around a bit. A sharp pain shot through his side and he let out a low, muffled groan “Oh... yeah... definitely a few bruised ribs. Not the time to worry about that though” After a moment to catch his breath, he then worked past the pain and sat up and moved his bound arms awkwardly so that the woman could see his tied wrists. “Now... you wouldn’t be able to cut me out of these, would you?”

The woman pulled out a knife, a familiar knife – Garrus’ knife – and cut through the bindings on his wrists. As soon as Shepard was freed, the first thing he did was check his wounds. Thankfully, most of the cuts he received from jumping through the window were barely scratches, and the ones that weren’t were rather minor. The gunshot on his arm went clean through, and though it was bleeding, it wasn’t gushing blood. He jerked at the sleeve of his left arm at a tear in the fabric, ripping it off to bind up the gunshot wound. After taking care of that, he pushed himself to his feet and, ignoring the pain of his body, quickly made his way upstairs, the woman who cut him free on his heels. As his friends came into his view, the two were now making short, precise shots, unlike the heavy suppression fire moments before.

As soon as he heard Shepard walking up the stairs, though, Garrus called out “Just like you to show up when I’ve taken care of just about everything.” There was an annoyed cough from Tali, and Garrus quickly corrected himself. “Okay... that we’ve taken care of just about everything.” He then turned around and, through bloody and a now-visible set of small cuts and a small burn running across the right side of his face, neck, and shoulder, smiled. “You look like shit, Shepard.”

“Says the guy who looks like something just exploded in his face.” Shepard shot back. “What happened?”

“Almost didn’t make it down the ridge in time – I pushed Dr. T’Soni out of the way and was diving down after her... but I got grazed by a bit of the blast.” Garrus said ever-so-casually. “Hurt like a bitch, but I knew your ass was in trouble so I popped a couple of painkillers, had the doctor blotch most of the blood off, and came after your ass as fast as I could. Got here just in time to see those thugs dragging Tali and Kaidan away.”

“I need to save Kaidan.” Shepard said at the mention of the professor.

“It’s not going to be easy.” Garrus said as he made his way over to his friend. “Right after you dove through the window downstairs, Saren and the rest of his men started making their way to the Vault – you’re going to have to fight your way through them to save him... but you’ll have my help.”

“All clear! Liara’s on her way.” Tali shouted, finally taking her aim off of the ground blow, She then made her way over to Garrus with a scowl on her face. “You’re not going with Shepard, Garrus – you’re in no condition to! Hell, I had to save your ass from one of the guys guarding me with the knife I had hidden in my boot an you barely hit anyone just now.”

Shepard took a good look at the rest of his long-time partner now that the shock of the man’s injured face had passed – his shirt and jacket were soaked in blood, his usual vibrant olive skin was oddly pale, and the one steely-blue eye he had opened seemed to looked very dazed, though if it was from blood loss or the pain killers, Shepard couldn’t be sure. He did know though that his friend would get himself killed if he tried to help him.

“Sorry, Garrus... you’re staying here.” Shepard said as he began to push his friend back towards one of the chairs in the room.

“Shepard, I’m...” The other man began to protest.

“Don’t argue with me, Garrus. You’re staying right here.” Shepard cut him off.  “I can do this by myself – I don’t have a choice, really.”

Tali suddenly spoke up. “You do have a choice – I’ll go with you. It would be suicide if you went in there alone in your condition, Shepard.”

Shepard shook his head. “No, you need to stay here with Garrus to watch over him. I don’t think he’ll be in any condition to defend himself if any of Saren’s men decide to show back up.” He could tell that the silence from the young woman meant that she knew he was right.

“Then I’ll go with you.” Someone spoke out from behind. Shepard turned to see Liara walking up the stairs with her bow slung over her shoulder. “It makes the most sense too – you’ll not only have someone who can help provide support but, thanks to the documents I was forced to study in Monaco, I also know much about this site, including the layout of the ruins beneath the mountains.”

Shepard didn’t want to risk Liara’s safety, not because he didn’t trust her and not because she wouldn’t be helpful, but because he didn’t want to see anyone else get hurt today. “No, stay here with them.”

“Goddamn it, stop being so stubborn and overprotective of everyone, Shepard.” Grabbing the bloodied sleeve of Shepard shirt, Garrus pulled his friend down to look him directly in the eye. “It was Liara who stopped me from charging into the middle of those mercenaries to try to save you and instead came up with the plan to save you on-the-fly. She risked her safety to save you too. So, just shut up and take her with you so you don’t die, okay?”

“But...”

“Shepard.” Liara spoke up. “Kaidan is a dear friend of mine. Not only has he helped me far more than I ever could have imagined with my research, when I was in trouble, he risked his safety to help save me too. So, I’m going with you, and that is the last of this discussion.”

It was clear that no matter what Shepard was going to say or do, the stubborn doctor was going to go with him and his even more stubborn friends wouldn’t let him say no. “Okay.” He sighed as Garrus finally let go of him. “Wouldn’t happen to know where they took my guns and things, would you?”

“They put all of our stuff in a room down on the first floor.” Tali responded. “Go ahead and take what was in my bag too – a few more grenades and another knife.”

A grateful smile formed on Shepard’s face. “Thanks, Tali.” He turned around and began to head back down the stairs. “Let’s go, Liara – Saren may need Kaidan for now, but we don’t know how much longer that’ll be the case.”

“Shepard, wait!” Garrus called out, causing Shepard to pause and turn. A cocky smile came across the bloodied face of the injured man in the chair. “I know this should go without saying, but when you’re saving lover-boy... don’t forget to put a bullet in-between that bastard Saren’s eyes.”

“I’ll make it two to be on the safe side.” A smirk crossed Shepard’s face before he turned back to head down the stairs with Liara on his heels. He quickly found the room that contained his supplies and weapons. After re-arming himself, he grabbed the supplies from Tali’s backpack to add to his own.

Liara went to pick up the other bag, Kaidan’s, when a stunned look came across her face. “This is... surprisingly heavier than I thought it would be.” She leaned down to open it, revealing the three green slabs that Kaidan had taken from the Prothean temple in Greece, as well as the still-glowing water bottle Kaidan had collected from there as well.

“Well, if it’s too heavy, take that stuff out.” Shepard said.

The doctor shook her head. “No, I can carry the weight. Besides, I cannot in good conscious leave something like these just lying about.” She quickly removed her bow and quiver for a moment to put the bag on, before rearming herself as well.

After a few last-second preparations – putting on Kaidan’s double holster, strapping Tali’s extra knife to his belt, picking up a P90 SMG that one of the mercenaries happened to leave lying about, and double-checking his ammo – Shepard lead the way out of the building, across the open space of the seemingly deserted excavation site, and to the entrance to the Prothean Vault beneath the mountain where they halted for a moment so that he could check to make sure there were none of Saren’s men right at the entrance. Once he was sure everything was all-clear, he told Liara to keep close before carefully and quietly leading the two through the threshold of the ancient Prothean structure.

 As the two walked through the entryway of the structure, Shepard noticed how even though there were similarities between the architecture of the two, the Vault was vastly different to the Archive in Greece. Architecturally, instead of crimson red walls of the archive, these walls were a deep, dark slate blue where it wasn’t covered by dirt or moss, the gold dealings along the walls were much less intricate and much more sparse, large gaping channels cut through the walls where it looked like it once housed a similar illumination set-up as the Archive had, and, most noticeably different of all, up against the walls were old, broken and cracked statues that, though time had taken its toll, still resembled vaguely familiar shapes – human and animals, mostly. Another thing that made this place different than Greece was all the lighting and scaffolding the excavation workers had set up to reinforce the structure as well as illuminate it everything as well.

As Shepard and Liara neared the end of the hallway, they could hear the sounds of men talking in the next chamber. He motioned for the doctor to stay back, then, dodging between pillars and statues near one side of the hall, proceeded to make his way to the opening. When he reached the massive chamber that went into the earth, he found two of the mercenaries looking down over a rail into the lower part of the chamber. It was clear that their guard was down by how boastful their talk of killing anyone “stupid” enough to try to storm the ruins. As they laughed at one another’s bravado, Shepard readied his knife before he began his silent approach, sneaking up behind the closer - and by chance larger - of the two men. Then, like a predatorily animal, he struck, quickly coming up from behind and slitting the one man’s throat. The other mercenary tried to do something – ready his gun or call out for help, Shepard couldn’t tell – but he wasn’t fast enough. With a swift, fluid motion that only came from years of training under the best of the best of hired guns, Shepard threw the knife right into the heart of the other mercenary, taking him out as quickly as the first one. After recovering his knife and moving the bodies out of the way, he moved back into the view of the hallway and motioned for Liara that it was all clear.

When the doctor saw him, blood on his hands and arms, an alarmed look crossed her face. Shepard held up a hand to calm her. “It’s not mine.” His words didn’t seem to help change her expression, but now was not the time to worry about it too much. Shepard slowly approached the balcony the two mercs he just killed had been looking out over into the room below. There were more statues, more of the scaffolding, and more of Saren’s men. Quite a few were patrolling the area, but most seemed to be gathered near one wall. Well, what looked like a wall. As he looked at it more and more, it became clear that the one flat section wall in the circular chamber was actually a door – the door to the Vault itself. Though the doors in the archives had been large, their size was mostly in their height. This one, on the other hand, was just sheer massive. Also, unlike the doors in the archive that blended almost seamlessly in with the smooth walls, this one was intricately carved, the most prominent detail though was what seemed to be a massive squid of some kind.

Shepard turned to Liara. “Please don’t tell me this big prothean treasure is a giant squid... or any other kind of seafood. I’m allergic.”

Liara shook her head. “The one thing I’ve always been sure of is that sea life has always played an important role in Prothean society – all evidence from where their towns were built, plus the tools they had seemed to portray them as a water-centric society. Also, that carving on the door is not a squid but a cuttlefish, though I could possibly see how you could make the mistake since they are in the same superorder.”

“Can we save the science lesson for later?” It was much less a question and more of a ‘be quiet’ as Shepard went through his bag to pull out his binoculars again when he noticed two people right at the door. One of the men was Saren and he was pointing a gun at the head of the other man who was quickly moving his hands, rotating rings on what was unmistakably the ‘medallion’ from Greece. The black hair and shirt, as well as the silhouette and rather well-endowed backside were unmistakably recognizable to Shepard. “Kaidan!”

As a worried Shepard watched from above, the professor pulled out the medallion from an impression on the door. Suddenly there was a thunderous click followed by rumbling. The doors to the vault began to slide apart, prompting Kaidan and Saren, as well as the mercenaries with them, to take a step or two back. Once the doors had opened about 20 feet, they stopped for a moment before they started to slowly close. Gun still raised, Saren forced Kaidan to lead the way into the now-opened vault.

“We need to stop them!” Shepard shouted in a hushed voice as he began to try to figure out a way to get to Kaidan in time before the door closed. There were too many men down there for a direct assault, and trying to pick them off one-by-one would take too long. There seemed to be drums of fuel to power the generators down near the center of everything. While a bullet could ignite the barrels if it hit just right, missing would give away his and Liara’s position. Also, a well-placed grenade could cause a lot of damage, but, yet again there was a problem – from this distance, Shepard wasn’t sure if even he could lob a grenade that far. If he wanted to set the barrels off to take out most of Saren’s men needed to be closer. At the moment, though, he couldn’t without being spotted. “Damn it... I need some kind of distraction.”

“What kind of distraction?” The doctor suddenly asked, wearing a pleased smile on her face when the treasure hunter turned to look at her.

“Um... the kind that distracts?”

She pointed to something off to the side of the room by where a small group of the mercenaries had gathered – some of the scaffolding full of metal pipes and equipment. It was secured in place with some ropes. “One well-placed arrow to one of those ropes, and that will all come crashing down.”

“Well, that would catch their attention.” Shepard agreed. “But, can you make the shot?”

The doctor didn’t say a word. Instead, she pulled out one of her arrows from her quiver, notched and pulled it back. The thin shaft was let loose with a swish that cut the air. Seconds later, the distinct sound of creaking metal and shouting came from near the scaffolding Liara had pointed out, soon followed by the sound of it all crashing down. But that wasn’t all that happened – something by the look on Liara’s face was unintended, but was not unwelcomed by Shepard  – some of the pipes that were near the top of the scaffolding slammed into the support of another scaffold with such force it began to buckle then collapse as well, coming down on another, causing it to do the same thing, and again and again and again. As it all came down, some of the pillars and stone being supported by the metal frames came collapsing down onto Saren’s men as well.

By the time almost half of the scaffold and a section of pillars and wall had fallen, it seemed as if wasn’t necessary to use now to take out the men – many of the mercenaries patrolling the room were rather buried under metal and stone, while the less-than-a-dozen left were trying to pull out their comrades. Unfortunately, while it proved to be a spectacularly effective way of taking most of Saren’s men out, the leader of the mercenary group seemed to become a bit unnerved. Though he couldn’t be heard over the crashing and clashing and screaming that filled the chamber, what Saren shouted to some of his men became clear when five of the men took up their guns in front of the closing door as Saren himself rushed Kaidan and the rest of his men further into the opened vault.

There was no time to waste now. “Cover me!” Shepard shouted to Liara before he pulled out the pistols that belonged to Kaidan. Under the mask of the shouts of anger and cries of agony as they began to harmonize with the ringing of crashing metal, Shepard took advantage of the chaos below to rush down the steps that lead to the floor of the chamber. By the time he reached the base of the steps, the door was over half-way closed. He began to dash towards the door, shooting any of Saren’s men who got in his way, taking out one after another without losing stride.

As Shepard neared the door, the five men guarding it readied their guns. Shepard took out two easily, but when the other three’s fire came too close, he was forced to dive behind a statue for cover. As he was reloading, he heard a blood-curdling sound from one of the three men, followed by alarm from the other two. Peering out from cover, Shepard saw the one man on the ground with an arrow of Liara’s lodged through the right side of his chest. He then opened fire on the other two, taking them out.

Now, there was nothing but a dozen-or-so yards of stones and metal beams and a set of stairs between Shepard and the now almost-shut door. With all he had in him, Shepard dashed off, jumping and sliding over any obstacle in his way to reach the door in time. He took the steps too at a time. And, just as it looked as if he was about to make it, suddenly, Saren stepped into view on the other side, holding his gun at Kaidan’s head. As soon as he saw the look in Saren’s eye, Shepard dropped his guns and froze in-place.

“Good... you know what would happen if you took another step.” Saren purred with a pleased smile. “As useful as the professor has just proven himself to be, I will kill him, don’t you forget.”

“Let Kaidan go!” Shepard shouted, his voice full of anger.

“I don’t think so – not yet, anyways.” Saren shot back. “Like I said, I haven’t been compensated enough for my efforts – depending on what’s in here, I may need Professor Alenko to help me go through a few more sites to see if there’s anything of value I can take.” As the door was nearly closed, the mercenary’s smile became even bigger and more sadistic. “If you want to ensure his safety, though, you’ll stay right where you are, because if you’re not there when I get back from seeing what’s in here so I can kill you, I’m putting a bullet into the dear professor’s head. Your life for his safety.”

“I’m going to kill you, Saren...” Shepard growled. “I’m going to find some other way into this vault and kill you.”

The mercenary scoffed. “You’ve been saying that for years, Shepard, and I’m still breathing. Come up with some new line, won’t you? Because, quite frankly, it’s starting to get a bit boring.”

Shepard looked at Kaidan just as the door was almost closed. “I’m going to save you. Trust me!” As the door shut with a loud, thunderous boom, Shepard rushed it and began to slam the stone. “I’m going to save you Kaidan! I swear!”

Sudden noises of someone approaching from behind made Shepard snap around, guns drawn. Expecting of one of Saren’s men who could have dug themselves out of the pile of metal that was over them though, Dr. T’Soni was instead the one making an approach, though she did freeze in her place when the gun was drawn on her. Shepard let out an exasperated sigh. “I thought you were one of Saren’s men.”

The woman shook her head. “I’m rather confident they are all rather dead from you shooting them or too occupied with being crushed buy hundreds of pounds of metal on top of them.”

As he re-holstered the guns, a look of determination filled Shepard’s face. “There has to be a way inside here SOMEHOW.”

There was a defeated look on Liara’s face. “Vaults are typically designed to keep people and things out, I doubt...”

“This isn’t my first time in some ancient ruin with a locked-up room, doctor.” Shepard interrupted her. “Places like these... there’s always another way.”

“Well, it is possible – most ancient civilization’s ideas of security were much different than what we perceive as secure. They also had panache for deadly traps.” Liara admitted.  “This dig site has been active for almost two years, and five of the six paths leading from this chamber have been explored...”

“So, we go down the sixth path.” Shepard cut in bluntly. “Which way is it?”

A worried look came across Liara’s face as she shook her head. “It just isn’t that simple, Shepard. There’s a reason why the sixth pathway has not been fully explored – of all the people who have tried to go down it, less than half have made it back alive, and only one of those not badly injured. As I said – ancient civilizations have a panache for traps.”

Hope – and excitement – filled Shepard. “A trap-filled hallway? Sounds like our best-bet. Which way is it?”

“It’s tunnel 3.” Liara reluctantly pointed off to one of the six openings in the walls – this one was the darkest of them all – that appeared to run flush against the left side of the Vault. “I know it seems like our best bet in getting inside the vault, Shepard, but it’s too dangerous! Not only are there traps, but there’s no lighting installed. Even with lamps, we could still walk into an unknown pitfall. It could even be caved-in like tunnels 2 and 4. There’s just no telling...”

“It’s a risk I’m going to have to take. I’m not just going to wait here while that madman has Kaidan.” Shepard made his way over to a pile of knocked over supplies and dug out a lantern before he started to make his way to the third tunnel. “If you’re afraid, go back to the others, and use the helicopter to get the hell off this island and get Garrus to a hospital. Then, once I’ve rescued Kaidan, the two of us will use the boat to get to the nearest island and then we’ll find you from there.”

Instead of doing what he told her to do, Liara instead went to where Shepard had found a lantern and pulled out one for herself. “No.” Her voice was defiant. “I told you, I was going to help rescue Kaidan, and I haven’t changed my mind. I can tell now by watching the way you’ve reacted every time you’ve seen Kaidan in the hands of that sociopath and I can tell that you care deeply about him. But, I do too – besides being my colleague, he is my closest and dearest friend. I may be afraid... but my fear can be put on-hold for the moment to do this with you.”

Shepard couldn’t help but appreciate the scholar’s devotion to her friend, and a smile came across his face as he waved for her to follow him. “Alright, then... better keep up – who knows what’s going to be up ahead down the path.”

“Pitfalls and false pillars that topple over and crush you when you step on pressure plates.” Liara responded. “Well, that’s what the incident reports say, anyways. There could be more things, though...”

After turning on the lanterns, the two began to make their way carefully down the hall. It wasn’t long before they caught sight of the first of many traps that had been set-off – one of the pitfalls, about six feet across. Over top of it now was a sturdy wooden plank, allowing them to cross over to the other side. As they continued on, they encountered a few of the fallen pillars, as well as two more of the pits. As they passed each of the triggered hazards, Shepard looked for any sign of a pattern or something to the traps, but he didn’t notice one – the pitfalls were randomly placed, as well as the pattern of which pillars that had fallen. He even kept an eye out for trigger stones, but found none.

After walking about 50-or-so yards down the hall, the path ahead of them seemed clear of any holes or fallen debris. A ways down the hall, an archway into something else became visible.

“Well, I guess we should be careful from now on.” Liara said as she gazed at the clear but clearly dangerous path before them.

Shepard’s senses went onto high alert as he and Liara slowly inched their way forward down the hall side-by-side, being mindful of the pillars on the wall. The further and further they went without anything triggering, the bigger and bigger of a bad feeling that started to grow within him. Sure, there was a chance they could have been lucky enough not to trigger one of the traps he just knew were still left in the hall – and they probably had – but his gut was telling him that something was defiantly wrong.

They had made it about 15 yards down the hall from the last triggered trap when there was a sudden, loud click and a look of dread on Liara’s face. Shepard instantly jumped back, pulling her with him, but the ground did not open up nor did a pillar fall. But, there was a sudden rumbling that shook the ground beneath them.

“Shepard, look!” Liara cried out as she pointed forward.

Dirt began to cloud up at the door at the end of the hall as it began to slowly slide down, closing off their way to what could be their only chance of getting inside the vault. Then a loud echoing from behind made them both turn around to see that all the still-standing pillars on the walls were beginning to fall one-by-one and two-by-two and coming their way. There was no turning back now. There was now no time to be cautious. There was only one option left to them now.

“Run, Liara! Run!” Shepard shouted as he grabbed the woman by the wrist and jolted forward. 

The two ran for their lives down the hallway as the pillars behind them began to collapse in on them, the doctor keeping pace with the treasure hunter. As they were running forward, the ground a few feet in front of them suddenly split open. Both Shepard and Liara leapt from the edge and were able to clear the six foot jump without losing stride and kept running.

The sounds of the pillars were getting closer and closer, now accompanied by the rumble of the tunnel behind them collapsing in on itself since it was losing its support. Another pitfall opened ahead of the two, and they cleared it as easily as the first, only to have another pitfall open up just a few feet later. They both jumped at the same time, but even before Shepard’s feet touched the ground, he heard a cry from Liara. When his feet touched down, he rapidly spun around to see the doctor’s landing coming just a bit short, getting caught slamming mid-chest into the edge of the pitfall.

“Shepard! Help!” She cried out as she dangled over the edge of death.

The falling pillars were getting closer and there was no time to spare, but the thought of leaving the doctor was not even a thought that passed through Shepard’s mind. He quickly reached down and pulled the woman up from the edge, quickly helped her to her feet. There was no time to catch any breath though, as the two rocketed off not even a whole pounding heartbeat after her feet were steady on the ground.

The ground split open one last time about 10 yards before the door, which was now only open a few feet. After clearing the last large hole in the ground, Shepard knew there was going to be only one way that they were going to get through the small gap.

“We’ve gotta slide!” Shepard shouted mere feet away from the door as he tossed his lantern to the side and suddenly lunged head-first forward, his chest hitting the ground hard but his momentum pushing him forward, under and past the closing entry, with Liara following suit.

With a loud boom, the shaking all stopped. Shepard and Liara were seemingly safe from being crushed to death now. But, unless there really was a way into the vault from this dark chamber, this place would still become their grave.

As Shepard sat himself up in the blackness, he remembered about the contents of Kaidan’s bag that Liara had taken. “Hey, open up Kaidan’s pack.”

“Oh, yes!” Liara exclaimed in an exhausted voice as she fumbled around in the dark to do so. As soon as she opened the bag and pulled the container out, the faint glow broke the ever-engulfing blackness enough so that the two could see one another.

As his eyes slowly began to adjust to the low light, Shepard began to notice a familiar gleam – something greenish – caused by reflecting light. He motioned for Liara to follow him, to see what it was. As the two came nearer, more green shimmers of reflected light became visible.

When they were right upon the source of the reflections, Shepard recognized the familiar setup – it was quite similar to the set-up from the first chamber in the archives in Greece, though, unlike that one, the six altar-like structures where the green activation slates were housed were attached to the large central slab, which was round instead of rectangular. Also, one of the activation slates seemed to be broken.

While it was not a way into the vault, Shepard knew, if the light setup still worked it could aid them in exploring the room to find one. Shepard pressed down one of the activation slates, and when the familiar click, hum, and faint glow happened, a relieved smile came across his face. “Liara, start pressing these down... turn on the lights.”

The doctor quickly followed Shepard’s instructions and began to press the ejected slates back into their slots while he did the same, causing the glow from the central slab to become brighter and brighter

Shepard had hoped that maybe, just maybe, the lights would activate without the 6th slate, but, to his disappointment, they didn’t. And though the room was slightly more illuminated, shadows still engulfed the edges of the room. “Well... there goes that plan.”

“We have more slates... can’t we just replace the broken one with one of those?” Liara suggested.

Shepard shook his head. “In Greece the slates only went one-way: down.”

“You’ll never know until you try.” She said as she put the bag containing the slates onto the altar by the broken slab.

The doctor had a point. Shepard grabbed the broken slate. When he pulled up, to his surprise, the slate ejected from its stone casing. Shepard couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, Liara... give me one of the slates.”

After she handed him one, he inserted it into the stone. Nothing – no click, no hum, no glow. It came back out easily enough, so he tried the other end – it wouldn’t eve go in that time.

“Maybe it’s not the right kind?” Liara suggested. “I mean, each one of these slates, while similar, are unique.” She handed him another slate. “Here, try this one.”

The second of the green slates had the same results.

Liara handed Shepard the final one.  As he held it in his hands, he knew this would be the last chance – if this didn’t work, they were going to have to do things the hard way and search the entire room with the faint light from the water bottle.

As Shepard slid the last slate – their last chance – into place, the familiar click, hum, and glow came from the stone. Excitement and accomplishment began to fill Shepard as the glow from the circular light setup began to get brighter and brighter, and slits on the walls began to slowly illuminate as well. Then something else began to fill Shepard – starting from his hand, up his arm, and into his body, an odd, unnatural tingling sensation began to flow. Then the tingling turned into stinging, and then stinging turned into burning.

And, before Shepard realized it, his entire body went crashing to the floor, and, for the second time in three days, his world went to black.


	13. Relic Effect

Shepard found himself standing in the middle of an alien, yet familiar world, without the slightest clue on how he got there.

 _”There”_ was was a city. Tall, sleek, dark grey buildings, adorned with designs in crimson, cobalt, emerald, and gold. The sky was a bright, crisp, clear blue, the waters in the ocean nearby sparkling and pristine. There were people too; men, women and children, in long, flowing, dark-colored robes, going about their lives, peacefully. As he walked the streets, he couldn’t help but notice how strangely unspectacular everything was. This unknown place, with these unknown people just seemed so normal to him. Nothing seemed out of place.

Not until the bright vibrant sky started to grow dark from the horizon and a massive booming sound – much like an air-horn – suddenly cut through the air.

Everyone stopped where they were, a look of fear suddenly appearing on their faces as they looked off towards the approaching darkness.

The thunderous booming sound exploded through the air once again.

Mothers suddenly rushed their daughters and youngest children away in towards the city, and away from the water, while fathers and the older sons rushed forward to the approaching darkness, their robes wisping away into intricate red, black and gold armor and elaborate golden spears.

 A third roar of the booming sound and the next thing that Shepard realized, the strange world was red, the skies glowing from the now-burning city, the waters the color of blood. The fathers and sons in their armor locked in a fierce battle with men made of shadows. As the crimson-clad warriors drove their spears into the hearts of their enemies, the shadows dissipated into nothing. But, when the shadows slew one of the warriors by sticking their twisted spears though the hearts of the men, thick black smoke flowed from the wound and engulfed them, adding the victim to the legion of shadowy monsters. When some of the warriors saw what happened to their brethren, they dropped their spears, unable to fight someone who was a father or a brother or a dear friend, only to be stabbed by the shadows and be turned as well.

The booming horn rang out a fourth time. The city was now nothing but rubble and ash, a sea of bodies and blood filled the streets. The only things left standing were two men, one clad in crimson, the other in shadows. Their spears were locked together as one struggled to gain advantage over the other, with neither succeeding. They pulled back, and clashed their spears against one another again. On and on the two went at it as the bleak sun and moon rose and set over the bloodied sky again and again and again for countless times.

When it seemed as if there would never be an end to their fight, the crimson-clad warrior dodged, taking the twisted spear to one of his shoulders, but allowing him to thrust his own into the shadow-clad warrior’s heart. When this shadow dissipated though, something remained. Lying on the ground was a black gauntlet, shaped like a wicked sea creature, the fingers of it more liked clawed-tentacles than anything else. The victorious warrior went to stab it with his spear, but the booming sound that had been ringing out again and again once more filled the air and the man stopped the point of his spear mere hairs away from piercing the gauntlet. He then dropped his spear, and picked up what the shadowy warrior had left behind, placing it on over his own hand. As it slid into place, his own armor began twisting into and shifting into the shadowy armor of his slayed enemy. 

Just then, the lush, once vibrant earth split open and reached up like a claw, grabbing the new shadow warrior and entrapping him within a prison of dirt and stone and leaving the remaining landscape jagged and barren in large spots. The skies faded back to blue, but they were not the same clean blue from they once were – something just seemed off.  And, finally, the blood faded from the ocean, but its pristine beauty was forever gone. A few people began to emerge from the rubble, but only a handful when there had been hundreds, not the thousands that there had been before. Much like the land around them, the sky above them, and the sea before them, they were changed too; their clothes were just mere shambles of what they once adorned, and the prior joy and peace in their faces nowhere to be seen. Instead, the only thing in their eyes now was sorrow, regret, and fear.

“Do not let what happened to my people happen to yours, John Shepard.” A deep, booming accented voice rang out from behind.

Shepard spun around, finding himself face-to-face with a dark-skinned man, with golden eyes filled with sorrow.

“Shepard...” The man spoke again.

“Shepard...!” This time, the voice sounded more feminine and much more concerned.

“SHEPARD!”

As he shot up, Liara jumped back a bit in alarm. Shepard’s head was ponding and his whole body still felt weird.

Liara quickly recovered from the shock of him suddenly shooting right up from the ground and was back at his side. “Shepard, are you okay?”

He let out a groan as he held his head. “What the hell happened? I feel like I’ve just got smacked by truck.”

“I’m not quite sure, actually... some kind of feedback, maybe? But I have no clue what could have caused it.” Confusion filled Liara’s voice as she replied to his questions. “The only thing I know for sure was that right after you put in that slate and the room lit up, there was a bright green flare and you just collapsed.”

“How long was I out?” concerned that they may have wasted too much time.

“Not that long, actually... maybe two minutes?” Liara replied.

Two minutes wasn’t that long, but still longer than Shepard cared for since Kaidan was still in the hands of that madman. “Well, we’ve wasted enough time just sitting here. Let’s see if there’s another way out of this room.” His strength was quickly returning to him, and with Liara’s help, he pulled himself off the floor and began to search for an exit, each of them going different ways to cover more ground.

Much like the walls in the rest of the structure, the room was a cobalt blue. Tattered dark grey cloth hung from the relatively short ceiling, and aside from the pulsing green device that activated the lights of the room, there were pristine statues of armored-clad men wielding elegant spears.  Atthe foot of each statue was a green, translucent sphere that looked to be made out of the same material as the slates. When Shepard saw the stone warriors, a sense of familiarity rose up from within him, though he didn’t know why.

Liara was searching a section of wall at the other end of the room while Shepard found himself being draw towards one of the statues; the one that was carved in the most grand and elaborate armor of them all, and reached out towards the green sphere. As he touched it, he felt a warm, pulsing sensation, as if he was resting his hand over top someone’s heart.

A low rumble of moving stone followed by a cry of excitement from the doctor caused Shepard to turn around quickly. Where Liara was standing, the wall was now splitting in two to reveal a pathway out of the chamber.

“Good going, doc.” Shepard said as he rushed over to the now-opened path. “What did you do to get it to open?”

Confusion was plastered on the woman’s face. “I... I didn’t do anything. Did you, do something, Shepard?”

He turned his head back momentarily to gaze at the ruined statues that filled the center of the room. A fuzzy feeling filled his head, and his gaze returned  to the doctor, looking rather confused as well. “No.”

He then shrugged the odd feelings off; there were more important things at the moment to contend with, such as saving Kaidan. As the hallway began to illuminate as the channels set in its walls began to fill with the glowing water, Shepard could see that there was another chamber about 50 feet away. With him leading the way, the two walked cautiously down the corridor, just in case the hall was lined with traps, like the previous one they had  gone through. When the two made it through to the next chamber without incident, they discovered only a set of spiral stairs leading upwards. As it was the only way to go, Shepard and Liara began the long trek upwards. Higher and higher they climbed, the floor of the base of the stairwell growing further and further away until it was like a shadowy speck, until they reached the top, where instead of finding another chamber or a hallway the size they were used to, they found only a small shaft that was barely three feet high.

“I hope you’re good with tight spaces.” Shepard said as he got to his hands and knees, looking into the dark shaft before him, trying to see an end but finding none. As Liara took to her hands and knees as well, she handed him the bottle of glowing water to help him lead the way.  As Shepard entered the shaft, he muttered to himself “God, I hope there’s no spiders in here.”

The shaft was long, with a slight curve, but thankfully spider-free. It was slow-work traveling it, especially on hands and knees, but eventually the Shepard saw a speck of light in the distance that grew larger the closer they got. There was something else he noticed as they got closer;  the sounds of stone sliding against stone, and the voices of men barking orders and groaning in effort. There was no doubt in Shepard’s mind; this was the inner vault.

The shaft exited into the upper reaches of the chamber, a few feet above the ceiling, and right behind a massive piece of silver fabric draping down into the room below. Using the fabric as cover, Shepard peered down into the chamber below. The men he saw below were all facing away from his vantage point well above them.

Kaidan was the first person Shepard noticed, standing there, his hands now bound again behind his back, with one of Saren’s mercenaries at each of his sides.  Eyes moving away from them, Shepard next spotted Saren. The leader of the mercenaries was commanding the remainder of his men that he had brought along with him, as they were using whatever they had; knives, the butts of their rifles, and even chunks of stone, to bash at the massive stone tomb that rested in the middle of the room’s circular dais.

“Hurry up and break those locks!” Saren barked at his men. “I can hear it calling for me...” There was something disturbing and almost trance-like how the words came out of his mouth.

As Shepard’s eyes focused on the tomb, a horrible sense of dread began to fill him. Something inside him went into full alert at the sight of the engraving of the twisted spear impaling the same sea creature that adorned the center of the massive vault doors. He didn’t know how he knew, but without a doubt, Shepard was positive that opening that tomb was the worst thing possible.

“Don’t do it!” Kaidan shouted suddenly. There was an odd touch of fear in his voice. Apparently, the professor was felt that opening the tomb was a horrible idea as well. “There’s something wrong about all of this; feet-thick doors, traps, and all the warnings written over everything, all for one thing!”

“You keep talking like I care about your opinion, Professor Alenko.” Saren sneered back as he made a motion to his men, prompting the two guarding Kaidan to strike him in the back of his legs, forcing him down to his knees. “Whatever is in there is mine, and I’m not leaving here without it! So shut up and just remember that I only need you alive, able to talk and use your hands. Perfectly functioning legs are a luxury I’m giving you for the moment.”

“We need to stop them from getting that thing open.” Shepard said in a hushed tone to Liara. “I’ve got a bad feeling... a _really_ bad feeling.”

“How?” Liara shot back. “We’re a good two hundred feet above them. If we open fire, they would most likely harm Kaidan.”

Shepard was looking around for something – anything – that could get him down fast... and that’s when it hit him. “All these pieces of fabric, they all look like they can go to the ground... I can just use one as rope to get down, and then quickly take those two men guarding Kaidan out.”

“And get shot out of the air while you slide down?!” She pointed out, slightly alarmed by the idea.

A confident smile crossed Shepard’s face as he made his way to one of the pieces of fabric. “Saren and the two guarding Kaidan are the only ones who could get to their guns in time, and I would have you up here to give me support.” After double-checking that none of Saren’s men were looking his way again, he quickly began to pull up one of the smaller streams of fabric.

“You don’t even know if that will support your weight!” Liara’s protested some more in hushed exclamation. “If it tears or comes ripping out of the wall, you’ll die from the fall!”

Shepard had pulled in one of the smaller pieces of fabric, stepping on it to hold it in place as he pulled out a pair of gloves from his bag. “Gotta risk it. Not only will I not let Kaidan be that madman’s hostage any longer, I have to stop that tomb from being opened.”

The doctor paused for a moment. “You’re right, and not just about having to save Kaidan. We must stop them from opening that vessel.” Her gaze turned back to the tomb the mercenaries were trying to open. “If the protheans went through such great lengths to lock something away like this, it must have been dangerous. What they may have thought of as a curse could have possibly something like a deadly disease. A virus or disease hibernating for thousands of years in sites like these is not unheard of and when they are discovered often extremely dangerous and very fatal.”  She pulled her bow off from her back and as she took a readied position, she notched one of the arrows onto it. “I’ll make sure they don’t hit you, Shepard. Hurry up and stop them.”

Shepard placed his knife in his mouth, holding it by the grip, before grabbing onto the fabric securely.  He then lept out over the edge, and when the fabric didn’t tear loose, he wrapped his legs around the fabric. The moment before he let loose his grip some to start sliding down, he shouted out excitedly through clenched jaw “Geronimo!”

Shepard had been expecting that he was going to be discovered as soon as he began to slide down the rope, and as if almost on cue, the mercenaries down below all shot around to see the source of the sudden noise. As soon as Saren saw that it was Shepard sliding down, he pulled out his gun and aimed it right at Kaidan. Before Saren could pull the trigger, an arrow ripped through the air, striking the gun and knocking it from the mercenary’s hand.

In all of the shouting, Kaidan unleashed a sudden roundhouse kick to one of the men guarding him that then effortlessly changed into a low spinning sweep to take the other mercenary off of his feet. Quickly standing back up, he then started to run towards Shepard.

“You two, keep working!” Saren shouted in rage at his men working at removing the lid of the tomb. “Everyone else grab your guns! Kill the professor! Kill Shepard! Kill whoever is up there! Kill them all! Protect the tomb! I won’t let them stop me from taking my treasure!”

As the mercenaries fumbled for their guns, Shepard touched down on the ground right as Kaidan reached him as well. After dashing behind a pillar for cover, Shepard quickly cut the professor free. “I’ve got a bad feeling about that tomb. Take your guns, and let’s hurry up and stop this bastard so we can get out of here and I can kiss you.” A cheeky grin formed on Shepard’s face as he returned the two pistols back to their owner, before taking the P90 he had acquired in-hand.

The two men then took to either side of the pillar they were behind and began to open fire on the approaching mercenaries. Saren’s men quickly dove behind some of the statues that were within the chamber and began to engage in

As Shepard and Kaidan were taking on his men in a gunfight, Saren suddenly let out a roar of rage. He pulled the two men he had left to open the tomb. “You two are useless! Go do something useful like taking a few bullets while I take what is mine!” He pulled out two of the many knives he had on his body and began to furiously stabbing away at one of the last two locks.

“Is it just me, or is Saren being crazy, even for him?” The question the treasure hunter shouted over gunfire to the professor was almost rhetorical. Shepard knew Saren, though, knew how he acted;  their lives had been crossing again and again in the worst ways for nearly a decade now, so he had more than one chance to observe him. While the mercenary was nowhere near the model for sanity, this blind, trance-like rage he was in now... Shepard had never seen it before and it honestly made him afraid.

“He’s got crazier about what’s in there the closer we got.” The professor informed Shepard. “He kept talking about how he was hearing things, and the closer we got, he went from how he was going to sell it to how he was going to keep it for himself. That didn’t go over well with a few of his men, so he killed them where they stood. By the time we got to the tomb, he was ranting on and on about how it would give him power.”

There was a loud smash, followed by Saren breaking out into a maniacal laughter. “One more! Just one more and it’s mine!” He then quickly started striking away at the last lock that was keeping him from the contents of the tomb, with even more determination than before.

Shepard knew he had no more time to waste. He pulled his bag around and pulled out the two grenades. “Kaidan, deal with these idiots! Saren is _mine_!” Clasping the grenades tightly in each hand, he pull the pins out with his teeth then ran out of cover long enough to throw each one near the center of where the mercenaries on his left and his right were clustered. Though the men tried to all dodge the blasts, three were caught in the shrapnel-filled explosions.

Now that half of Saren’s remaining men were out, and with Kaidan covering his back, Shepard started to rush the distance between him and Saren, his finger squeezed tightly against the trigger, laying down fire on any of the remaining three men who tried to get in his way.

He was about halfway to the center dais when the sound of shattering stone echoed over the gunfire eerily. “YES! I have it! Finally!” Saren shouted as he threw his two now-badly damaged knifes to the side and began to push and push and push at the lid.

As the large stone lid inched further and further off of the rest of the tomb, the dread that had filled Shepard began to intensify greatly. “Saren! Stop!” He attempted to open fire with his gun, but the magazine was now empty, after spending it all on keeping the other mercenaries behind cover. He had no timed to change out the clip, so he discarded the gun and pulled out his knife as he picked up his pace.

A thunderous boom filled the chamber as the lid slammed off of the tomb and cracked in half. Saren gasped at the content of the tomb for a mere second before he greedily shot a hand within to recover what his eyes had gazed upon lustfully.

Saren’s guard was down, and Shepard was close enough to strike. He brought his knife high into the air before bringing it down lighting quick, aimed right for the neck of the monster that had brought him so much pain and misery over the years.

Saren shot around, lightning fast, grabbing Shepard by the wrist of the hand that held the knife. “No! I won’t let you have it! It’s mine! It called out for me and only me!” he shouted, before he planted his foot into Shepard’s gut, sending the treasure hunter stumbling backwards

One of Saren’s men, realizing he was in trouble, turned around to assist him. He aimed his gun at the treasure hunter, and went to pull the trigger. Before he could, though, Saren pulled out another one of his knifes, throwing it into the man’s chest. As the merc dropped to the ground, dead, Saren shouted out. “You were trying to steal what’s mine, weren’t you? I know you were! You just what what’s mine! You can’t have it! Not Shepard’s life! Not this! Nothing!”

Shepard had no clue what Saren was rambling on about until he noticed what was clutched within the other man’s right hand – it was something the color of icey shadows, sleek, with five long taloned tendrils. It was shaped just like the creature in engraving on the now broken lid to the tomb, on the door to the vault, and from a vague, fuzzy memory. The mere sight of the relic invoked a sensation within Shepard that he could only describe as a reaction to staring right into the heart of something made of pure evil and malevolence... a feeling that seeped out from every one of its pores, and twisted and corrupted those that held it in their grasp. And, the longer Shepard was close to it, the more he felt as if the object was trying to seep into his own head too.

“That thing is making you madder than you already are, Saren!” Shepard shouted as he struggled to free himself from the other man’s grasp.

“You just want it for yourself like my greedy men!” Saren growled as his attention snapped back to Shepard. “Only thing I’ve ever truly wanted you stole from me and you’ve ruined everything else!” He continued on as he quickly pulled out another knife with his left hand and took an offensive stance, the relic still clutched in the right. “The Spectres were to be mine! All the money! All the power! But you had to ruin it, with that false sense of honor and loyalty you had!”

Shepard quickly recovered, taking a defensive stance instead. As he carefully began to pace around Saren, the two men’s eyes locked with one another’s, he shot back. “What did you think I was going to do when I found out what you had planned? Just let you go through the coup and turn the Spectres into a pack of wild hounds?”

“That’s exactly what mercenaries are meant to be!” Saren lunged at Shepard, but the treasure hunter deflected the other man’s blade and quickly spun back to a safe distance. The mercenary quickly recovered and began to pace around with his opponent as he continued on. “The Spectres were still at the top, but they had become weak; cautious of the jobs they took out of fear of repercussions! Someone like me, someone with a backbone, had to stand up and take charge to keep the power and the influence! Set the company back on the path of being the absolute top of the PMCs! And when I finally had my chance...” The man let out a disgusted snarl. “...you ruined it all!” He slammed a foot forward. “We are mercenaries, trained killers who lend their skills to the highest bidder! It doesn’t matter who the money is from! Power! Glory! Money! Spilling blood! _That_ is what mercenaries like us live for!” Saren roared back.

Saren lunged at Shepard again. This time, when Shepard went to deflect the blade, it was Saren who spun around to dodge, and as he rounded back behind Shepard, he effortlessly flipped his knife around in his hand and swiftly jabbed his blade into Shepard’s upper shoulder. Shepard stumbled forward, dropping his knife and falling to the floor.

Staying on the ground would be inviting death. Shepard, grasping his wounded shoulder, quickly began to pull himself off of the ground. Things could have been better; Shepard was now unarmed, while the ringing of gunfire that filled the air meant Kaidan was still busy with the other mercs, and Liara could only do so much with a bow at her range that also had dwindling arrow supply. He wasn’t likely to get any help from them. Still, neither the bleak situation, nor the things Saren rambled on about were taking any of the fight from. “No, that’s what monsters like you live for.” Shepard shot back, keeping his eyes locked on his opponent as he got to his feet again.

“We’re all monsters, even you.” Saren spit at the man before as he continued stalking around him. “It doesn’t matter how you justify the things you do.You still lie, steal, cheat, manipulate and kill to get the job done. The only real difference between you and me is that you’re too afraid to go all out because you know you’ll love it.” One of the corners of his lips twisted upwards dementedly as he raised the relic up to gaze upon it. “That doesn’t matter now... none of it. Now I have all the power I’ll ever need.” Saren quickly tucked the black object under his right arm and then lunged at Shepard with the ferocity of a rabid beast, his knife aimed right for Shepard’s heart.

Saren was a master of CQC; even if Shepard was uninjured, he would have had great trouble stopping the oncoming attack. If he wanted a chance to come out of this alive, Shepard felt as if he had only one option, and he only had a split second to react... and he knew it was going to hurt. He charged right into the other man’s attack, taking Saren’s knife again into his upper right shoulder again, but quickly grasped the mercenary’s left forearm, digging his fingers around the bandaged arrow wound from earlier.

The mercenary let out a growl, but didn’t seem too phased by Shepard’s actions. “You think gouging at a wound is going to stop me?”

Through the pain of the knife that was twisting in him, Shepard let out a smile and a hoarse laugh. “No, but this will.” He delivered a swift, powerful knee to the other man’s crotch, causing Saren to let lose his grip on his knife and stagger back. Before the other man could recover, Shepard rushed up to him and kicked the black relic from Saren’s grip, sending it flying across to the other end of the massive dais, crashing down with a heavy, hollow thud.

“NO!” The sound Saren shrieked out sounded as if Shepard had just severed a limb from the man. He promptly ignored the man he was fighting and dashed after the object. When Saren neared it, dove on top of it to reclaim what he thought to be his.

After Shepard pulled the blade out of his shoulder, he turned to see Saren cradling the object, muttering to it and stroking the sleek, black relic. He couldn’t believe the sight. “You’ve really lost it, Saren.”

“You try to deny me what is mine!” Saren growled at Shepard as he stood back up before his eyes became fixated on the relic once again. “No... you’ll not take it away from me again... never again!”

The underside of the black object spit open and Saren placed his right arm within it, revealing it to be a gauntlet. He let out an insane laugh as he began to close the relic around his arm. As the final clasp locked and Saren began to flex his now talon-clad fingers, he stared Shepard directly in the eyes. “Now I will...!”

Saren didn’t finish his words. Instead, the next thing that came out of his mouth was a blood-curdling scream as he suddenly grasped at his now armored right forearm, a look of agony distorting his face. As he fell to his knees as blood began to leak out of the gauntlet while he thrashed about in agony, he asked in a betrayed, weakened voice. “Why...?  You promised me power... that I would have all I ever desired...”

“Yeah, because trusting a voice in your head that you think belongs to an evil-looking gauntlet _always_ works the way you think it would.” Shepard said as he walked forward, Saren’s knife in hand.

As Shepard neared, Saren pulled out yet another knife and began to slash at the air wildly. “Stay away!”

Shepard effortlessly kicked the knife out of Saren’s hands before kneeling down to look the man right in the eyes. “Burn in hell, you son of a bitch!” Then, with Saren’s own blade, he stabbed the mercenary though the heart, leaving the blade in his chest. “ _That’s_ for all the lives you’ve ruined.” He then stood up and took a step back before he stomped the knife further in. “And _this_ is for Ashley” And one more kick. “And _that’s_ to make sure you’re dead!”

A death rattle escaped the mercenary’s lungs before he fell over, lifeless.

For a moment, Shepard stood there over Saren’s corpse. This moment had been a long time coming, but he took no true pleasure in it. The only thing he felt was relief in knowing that now his fallen comrade could find peace in the afterlife she believed in.

“Shepard!”

He turned around at the call of his name to see Kaidan, holding the medallion in one hand and looking a bit roughed-up but not too worse for wear, making his way towards Shepard from the far side of the chamber. Seeing that Kaidan was okay, Shepard allowed a relieved smile to come across his face. “Kaidan...” He whispered, happy, as he made his way towards the approaching professor.

When the two met at the base of the dais’ steps, Kaidan saw the wounds to Shepard’s shoulder and concern filled his face. “You’re hurt!”

Shepard shrugged. “I’ll be okay...” He went to take a step forward and stumbled a bit. Now that the fighting was over and all the adrenaline stopped pumping through him, Shepard was beginning to feel the effects of everything he had just put his body through. “Um... well... _maybe_ just to be on the safe side, we should hurry up and get out of here so I can get patched up.” Kaidan wrapped an arm around Shepard to assist him, leading the way to the chamber’s exit.

Waiting near the massive archway was Liara, who had climbed down using the same piece of fabric Shepard had used once the gunfire below had subsided. The doctor wore a concerned look on her face. “Are you alright, Shepard? I saw the way Saren was acting, heard the things he said... it was like he was a rabid dog.”

“I’m good, Doc...” He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“What about the artifact Saren recovered from the tomb?” She said. “We should recover it, bring it to the University and...”

The thought of bringing the gauntlet outside of this vault honestly scared Shepard. “No!” He shouted out a bit louder and angrier than he intended.

Liara went to say something, but then suddenly Kaidan spoke up. “You know, I think Shepard’s got a point... I don’t know if it was all in Saren’s head or what... but that thing drove him crazy. I think we should just leave it alone, for now at least. We can come back for it later.” He held up the key to the vault. “Those Cerberus guys won’t be getting in here anytime soon without this.”

Liara nodded, a bit reluctant. “I guess you have a point… we can recover it later. And I do suppose that due to the injuries Shepard and Garrus have sustained, seeking medical attention should be the top priority.”

The three began to leave the chamber, and this island, behind them. When they were walking along, though, Shepard suddenly felt a shiver pass through Kaidan as the professor stopped dead in his tracks.

“You okay, Kaidan?” Another bad feeling was beginning to rise from Shepard’s gut.

Confusion and fear filled the professor’s face. “I... I could have just sworn I heard someone ask me a question... what it was that I... “desired”.”

Shepard’s heart skipped a beat as that bad feeling grew even more. “What did you say?!”

The way Shepard had demanded with such alarm caused the confusion in Kaidan to disappear entirely, leaving only the fear. “Something asked me...”

“What is your desire?”

Shepard, Kaidan, and Liara hesitantly turned around sound of the voice from behind, and none of them could believe the source. Standing on the dais, body somewhat limp, save for the extended arm the black gauntlet was attached to, was Saren. The voice did not belong to the mercenary though... it was too deep, too old, too... powerful.

Saren took a step forward. “What is your desire?” The voice asked again, though the mercenary’s lips remained motionless.

“He’s still alive!” Liara shouted, fear in her voice.

Shepard knew better; he had heard the unmistakable sound of the last bit of life escaping from Saren’s body. Whatever was standing in standing on the dais, it defiantly was not Saren Arterius. “You two, get out of here!” Shepard commanded as he took one of Kaidan’s guns tucked in the back of his pants and pushed himself away from the professor’s supportive embrace. “I’ll deal with this... thing.”

A strong hand suddenly grabbed Shepard by the arm – Kaidan’s hand. “I’m not leaving you behind, Shepard, and it’s not open for debate.” He then turned to Liara and held out the medallion. “Take this, open the door. We’ll...” He looked hesitantly at the body of Saren slowly making its way forward. “...we’ll be right behind you.”

The doctor did not waste any time in taking the medallion, and bolting down the corridor that lead to the vault door, leaving Shepard and Kaidan alone with the animated corpse.

“You should have gone with her.” Shepard said to Kaidan.

“And you should have grabbed my gun that still had about five or six bullets in it.” Kaidan shot back as he pulled out his other gun and handed it to Shepard.

Shepard couldn’t help but laugh as he took the gun from Kaidan and the pointed it right at the advancing body of Saren. “Stop right there. You don’t have anything we want.”

“You lie to yourself then.” The body spoke. “All humans desire the same thing.”

“Sorry, I don’t want power.” Shepard rebuffed. “All I want right now is a couple of pain killers, a cold beer, and about a week alone with this man right beside me, and I don’t need your help to get any that.”

“I never promised power to this body’s former inhabitant,” the thing responded. “It only assumed that power was the gift I offered – a pointless and meaningless idea. No, the desire I will grant you is the only true thing in life...” The black gauntlet clenched its fingers closed into a fist as the body raised it into the air. “Death!” The body that had been practically dragging itself across the dais suddenly launched itself into a mad dash towards the two men near the archway.

He didn’t know exactly what bullets would do against something that possessed a dead body, especially with just “five or six” bullets, but Shepard knew he had to stop the thing from getting to them.

Shepard fired the first bullet, striking the charging body in the chest to no effect. He then aimed lower, towards the knees. His next shot missed, but the third and fourth shots, fired in rapid succession, found their mark in the corpse’s right knee. It fell to the ground, it became very apparent that something as little as the loss of the use of one of its legs was not going to slow it down. It quickly scrambled onto its hands and one good leg and began dashing again on its three limbs, coming closer and closer to the two men.

There were only one or two bullets left. Shepard knew his next shot hadto put a stop to the thing. It was then, that along the path the animated body was charging, was the lifeless body of one of the mercenaries, and strapped to his body were a few grenades. Shepard took aim at one and, right as the scurrying corpse of Saren was right over the body of the fallen mercenary, and fired.

The sound explosion rang through the chamber as it ripped through the lower torso of Saren’s body, tearing it in two and sending the remaining halves flying into the air and back onto the ground.

Shepard and Kaidan stood there a moment, watching the body just lie there to make sure it wasn’t going to start talking or moving again. When they were both satisfied that it was finally “dead” they both let out a sigh of relief. Kaidan took Shepard into his arms again. “Hey... let’s get out of here now.”

Shepard, exhausted from everything, nodded as he tucked the gun into the waist of his pants. “Yeah... sounds good... I’ve had enough of this zombie shit for today.”

As they began to make their way down the corridor that lead to the Vault’s exit, they both heard the familiar rumble of the doors opening. Seconds later, they heard a different rumbling, followed by the ground all around them shaking.

 _You will not leave here alive._ The booming voice of the relic suddenly echoed loudly in Shepard’s head. _Those who imprisoned me here made sure none would leave with the contents of this vault._

The shaking became more and more violent, and soon dust and small bits of crumbling stone began to rain down from above. It was obvious what was happening; the entire place was coming down.

“Kaidan, go, get out of here!” Shepard said as he tried to push the professor onward. “I’ll just slow you down.”

The professor instead started walking forward, dragging the treasure hunter along with him. “Like hell I am! You told me last night that we were all getting out of this mess alive. So, goddamn it, we are!”

As they continued making their way forward, Shepard kept protesting. “Dragging me along is just going to get you killed too. I promised you that I was going to keep you safe. I don’t want you to die because of me.”

“Yeah... and now it’s time for me to keep you safe.” Kaidan shot back as he led the way, larger pieces of stone now falling all around them.

They were about halfway to the door of the vault, the massive doors ajar so that the grand antechamber before it was visible, when a thunderous, echoing boom rang out from behind them. It was not the sound of rocks falling, but, more like a horn. It caused Kaidan and Shepard to turn around at the same time to see, perched on top of a large pile of rubble, the severed upper torso and arms of Saren’s body. It then leapt forward, and began to bounce back and forth between pieces of rubble, closing the distance between it and the two men quickly.

“That thing just won’t die, will it!?” Kaidan shouted out as he started to pick up his pace as much as he could with dragging Shepard.

The sight of the thing again, though, had made Shepard’s blood start to pump fast again to shoot another dose of adrenaline throughout his body, giving him a second wind. He began to pick up his pace, and, soon, broke free of Kaidan’s aide.

The two men were now running side-by-side for their lives as the walls around them began to crumble around them and the creature quickly catching up to them.

As they passed the doors to the vault to enter the also-crumbling antechamber, they saw no sign of Liara, which had meant that she had probably fled for the exit as soon as the Vault had begun to shake itself apart. They quickly made their way across the room and to the stairs that lead to the exit above them and took the steps two at a time. A ways in their ascent of the steps, the ones they had already crossed began to crumble away.

There was another thunderous boom of the horn. Though Shepard could have sworn it was in his head, it felt as it was right on top of the two men, unlike before. Neither one dared looked back though to see how close the possessed torso was, as it would only slow them down.

The top of the stairs were finally in sight when a section between the two men and end of the steps crumbled away. Kaidan leapt forward, over the gap, making a perfect landing. Shepard, mid-way through his jump, suddenly felt something warm, wet, and strong latch on to his right ankle. The sudden extra weight threw off his jump, making him fall short, though he was still able to catch himself on the very edge of the crumbling steps. Though he knew what it was, Shepard looked down anyways to see the disfigured animated corpse of Saren holding on.

 _You will die!_ The voice spoke into Shepard’s head, most likely due to the fact Saren was now missing his lower jaw.

“John!” Kaidan cried out as he grabbed onto one of Shepard’s arms and began to try to pull him up. Though Shepard grabbed onto Kaidan with both of his hands, it was proving difficult with the extra weight of the dangling torso. “Damn it... “

Shepard tried kicking the fleshy hand away, but it was proving to me useless.

The disfigured corpse began to reach up towards Shepard with the hand clad in the black gauntlet.  _I will grant your desire..._

Knowing he had to do something, and hoping for a bit of luck, Shepard removed one of his hands from Kaidan’s arm and pulled out the gun tucked in his waistband, taking aim at the gauntlet. “You can go to hell too, you stupid glove!”

The bullet fired, cutting through the open palm of the gauntlet and continuing on to embed itself into the forehead of the deceased Saren. The corpse finally went lifeless, the grasping hand around Shepard’s ankle went limp, and it and the accursed gauntlet went falling to the floor below.

With the extra weight gone, Kaidan wasted no time in getting Shepard up on his feet, and then, together, the two men finally left the Vault, making it out just barely before everything finally collapsed in on itself.

Waiting outside for them were their companions, Dr. Thanoptis, and the few surviving members of the site’s work crew. Someone had started up the helicopter, and it looked like they had been waiting on Shepard and Kaidan to come out of the Vault safely.

Shepard hoped that shooting the gauntlet and burying it under a mountain was enough.Thinking things were over, but then not was getting to be a bit too much for him. Just then, Kaidan leaned his head against his own, and Shepard found himself letting out a sigh of relief because, in that moment, everything truly felt over and done with. Despite the feeling of relief though, an exhausted expression still came across Shepard’s face as he looked at Kaidan. “You know what... Let’s get going. I’ve had enough of this damn place.


	14. Epilogue

It had been a week since the incident on the island off the coast of Africa.

They had taken Garrus to a hospital in Spain. Despite the initial blood loss and the slight overmedication, the doctors told Garrus that he was going to be fine, though he would be left with some rather visible and unsightly scars without cosmetic surgery. He rather bluntly declined; the idea of the scars seemed to put a smile on his face, until the pain from his injuries made him stop.

Tali had stayed in Spain by Garrus’ side at the hospital, to make sure he didn’t try anything stupid or against the doctors’ orders while he recovered. But, when she couldn’t be in the room with him, she spent her time mining for more information about the aftermath of the Vault incident in the Synthetic Insights computer systems. Unfortunately, there was very little pertaining to the incident beyond a large number of pink slips, large sums of money transferred to the survivors of Saren’s slaughter, and carefully-worded memos about compensation for the family members of the deceased site workers.

Kaidan and Liara had returned to New York City, with not only the medallion but also with a vastly different perception on the society to which they had devoted so many years of research, only to have so much of it bashed away. Being kidnapped by a madman, held hostage, and then nearly dying in a firefight had’t traumatized Dr. T’Soni one bit, and  before they had even gotten back to the city, she had seemed excited, even eager, about all the new data. She was acting like Kaidan had when he had first walked into the Prothean archive in Greece, going on and on about how these discoveries were going to lead to history being re-written.

Kaidan, on the other hand, seemed much less enthused about the revelations now. Though he didn’t voice his opinions, the intensely concerned look he wore on his face at the mention of anything Prothean spoke volumes; he was worried at what other possible horrors could lie within the ancient civilization’s past. Still, it didn’t stop him from assisting Liara in compiling her data. In fact, the concern he held seemed to motivate him.

Shepard, after getting patched up, and staying for another two days with Garrus, did exactly what he told Kaidan he was going to do; he hopped on a plane and headed to New York for a bit of a vacation. The first thing Kaidan made him do, though, was get in bed and rest for a few days. The professor was insistent that after everything Shepard had gone through; the physical wounds, as well as the mental ones re-opened by Saren; that taking a bit of time to recuperate was necessary, for a few days at least. As much as Shepard didn’t want to admit it, Kaidan was right. His final encounter with Saren had taken a toll, and that wasn’t didn’t take into account the ‘Black Glove of Evil,’ or being knocked out for a bit by the device in the one chamber. It was, however, going to make one hell of a story.

After a few days of bed rest, and Kaidan finally relenting after days of being pestered, Shepard left Kaidan’s apartment.  After taking a short stroll around the neighborhood, Shepard found himself sitting inside a small café not too far from the campus of NYU,sipping away at a cup of coffee and sketching away at one of the napkins, waiting for Kaidan to meet him for a late lunch to tell him the news. Today had been an important day for Dr. T’Soni and Professor Alenko; it was the day they went before the Board of Directors to provide evidence about the existence of the Protheans, and find out not only if Dr. T’Soni was still going to keep her funding, but also if Kaidan would still have his job.

Kaidan showed up a little past one. The professor wore a stunned expression on his face, though, Shepard couldn’t tell if it was a good stunned or a bad stunned.

Shepard quickly stuffed the napkin he was sketching on into his pocket and then cut right to the chase. “So, should we be ordering a nice big celebratory lunch when the waiter gets here, or should I ask for a bottle of whiskey instead?”

Even after Kaidan sat down, he stared blankly into the air for a moment before he realized he had been asked a question. “I, um... still have my job, if that’s what you wanted to know.”

“Generally, when you don’t  get fired, you’re supposed to be a bit happy.” Shepard pointed out. “Not... half-dazed and disappointed.”

“Yeah... you’re right. I should be happy right now.” Kaidan sighed as he finally focused his eyes on Shepard. This was the first time Shepard had gotten a good look at the rich, earthy tones of the professor’s eyes since the island, and they seemed older now.

Ever since coming to New York, Shepard knew that there was something up with the professor. “You know, Kaidan... if there’s something bothering you, tell me, please.”

For a moment, the solid-stone face he wore made it looked as if the professor was going to remain quiet, but then the harden resolve broke and he just started talking. “What if that thing in the Vault wasn’t the only thing the Protheans locked away? What if there were worse things than that?” He suddenly pulled out a folded page from his pocket and laid it out. Shepard instantly recognized it as part of the professor’s translations that he had been shown on Jenkins’s boat with Garrus.

Kaidan continued on. “This passage I translated from the journal, from the mosaic in Greece, it got me thinking about what it could be talking about.” He pointed out to one of the lines. “Look at this line, “raise us from the bed of death” and then “lay with sleeping gods”... I just always though it was just superstition... and now...”

Shepard could understand the feeling. No one could have known the force that slept in the vault, not even him. Truth be told, that feeling of dread he had felt inside that vault hadn’t left him completely after he put a bullet through the gauntlet. And, even though Shepard had been through several traumatic experiences in his life that left lingering bad emotions... this was different, as if the events that had transpired weren’t over... not by a long shot.

If Kaidan were feeling even remotely like he was, Shepard wanted to comfort the man... put him at ease. “Hey, that thing’s gone. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Kaidan shook his head. “What if there’s more vaults like that, with more of those “god”-things locked away?” He pointed to another line of the text. “It clearly says “gods” and “gates”. I think the gates are more Vaults, and more vaults mean... well it means what I’ve spent years on could get innocent people killed.”

Shepard reached out and placed his hand on top of one of Kaidan’s. “I know you won’t let that happen. You would rather let a ton of ruins fall on you than let someone die.” A cheeky little grin came across his face. “Of course, that’s where I come in, to drag that rather nice ass of yours back to safety.”

All the worry suddenly washed away from Kaidan’s face as he let out a laugh. “Hey... the way I remember it, I was the one dragging your ass to safety.”

“Details, details...” Shepard shrugged it off. He then gave Kaidan’s had a reassuring squeeze. “The important thing is that I’m going to be here for you... help you out anyway I can.”

 

 

The professor smile placed his free hand on top of Shepard’s. “Thanks, John.”

“Professor Alenko!” Someone suddenly called out from the other side of the café. Shepard and Kaidan both turned to see a man with greying brown hair, dressed in a rather expensive business suit and holding a small leather satchel, making his way to their table. From the look on his face, Kaidan clearly knew him.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your lunch, Professor, but I was hoping to catch you before you left the meeting with the Board.” The man apologized as he reached the table. Now that he was closer, the thick sent of tobacco masked by expensive cologne filled the air around him. “I just wanted to quickly pass along something that you might be interested in.” He held out the satchel for Kaidan to take.

“Um... thank you.” Kaidan said as he took the leather bag, though he was clearly confused. “But, um...”

“It’s something that just came into my possession a few days ago.” The man interrupted Kaidan. “I know how much you love to crack unusual texts, so when I opened the book inside there up and couldn’t even make from right to left of it, I thought of you.” He let out a dry laugh that seemed more for show than anything else. “I was hoping you could possibly translate it... in your spare time, of course.”

Kaidan nodded. “Yeah... I’ve got a few free weeks.” He then looked over at Shepard and gave the treasure hunter a warm smile before turning his attention back to the man. “I’ve got some plans, but I’m sure I could at least find a little time to give it a quick glance.”

The man then turned his attention to Shepard for a second and then back to Kaidan. “Well, sorry for the intrusion. I actually have to get to an important meeting, so I’ll leave you two gentlemen to your lunches.”

And, with that, the man was gone just as quickly as he showed up.

“Who the hell was that?” Shepard asked Kaidan as soon as the man had walked out the door.

“Jack Harper. He’s in charge of a collection of museums and historical societies throughout the United States. He also happens to be an honorary member of the Board, thanks to all his financial contributions.” Kaidan replied as the hung the satchel on the back of his chair. “I’ve only really talked with him a few times in person, at a few fund raisers and the one board meeting, but he’s always showed a bit of interest in my linguistic abilities and is sending me things to translate all the time.”

“He seemed... weird, like he had some kind of agenda.” Shepard said, as he thought about the way the words rolled off the man’s tongue; quick, as if they were trying to hide something.

“Well, I’m sure he’s just curious about what’s written in it, that’s all.” Kaidan replied as he finally picked up his menu. “Come on, all that worrying from earlier meant I didn’t eat breakfast – I’m starving.”

Shepard was sure that Mr. Harper wanted more than that, but if Kaidan didn’t seem to put much thought into it, he was going to make an effort to not think about it either. When the waiter made his way to the table, Kaidan promptly ordered a steak sandwich and a coke.

Shepard was having a bit more of a problem deciding. “What would you say is pretty good here?” He asked the man standing beside him as he looked at his menu.

“That you are right, John Shepard. It is not over.”

The words from the voice with the thick, deep accent sent a shiver down Shepard’s spine. He looked up to the waiter, but the face with hard, exotic features and dark ebony skin belonged to someone else... someone from a dream.

“The focus of your lust is right in his fears - Nazara was only the first.” The ebony man growled. “Let sleeping gods lie, less the world turn to ash once again.”

Suddenly, flashes of the city, of crimson-clad warriors fighting shadows, and so much blood and fire filled Shepard’s head again for a brief second, then quickly faded back into a forgotten memory. It was there long enough, though, as the world around him became milky and distant.

“Shepard, are you okay?” Kaidan suddenly asked, alarmed, as he squeezed Shepard’s hand hard enough to bring Shepard out of his trance.

Shepard went to say something, but when he went to look and point at the dark-skinned man who had given him the foreboding warning, only the young freckled-faced waiter stood there. “Uhmm... yeah.” He rubbed the side of his head, embarrassed. “I must have spaced out.”

He knew he didn’t though. He was right, about things not being over... and he hated it. Yet, Shepard recovered as effortlessly as he always did, ordering his lunch and slowly, but surely getting Kaidan to ease up on him about the odd little display moments before.

All the while though, he couldn’t help but think about how this had all started off with something that was meant to be a simple job, but it had turned out to be so much more... almost like a nightmare.

But... it also had brought Kaidan into his life. And, with the professor at his side, Shepard had a feeling that whatever lied ahead, as long as he had Kaidan nearby, getting through it would be possible.

 


End file.
